Genencor Extends Ethanol Agreement with USDA/ERRC

The project is part of Genencor’s focus on current ethanol applications. Genencor will continue to provide scientific expertise and in-house resources to the ERRC collaboration, and will also contribute $100,000 to the project.

12/12/08 Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, has signed a two-year extension of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the USDA’s1 Agricultural Research Service, Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC). Under the agreement, Genencor and ERRC will continue to jointly develop an economically viable process for converting winter barley, a non-food crop, into ethanol.

“We have already made significant progress through our collaborative research with ERRC, including using enzymes to break down beta-glucans in barley to increase ethanol yield,” says Glenn Nedwin, Executive Vice President for Technical Enzymes for Genencor. “In this next phase, we will tackle the remaining challenges to develop an efficient, cost-effective process and bring it to commercial scale.” Potential for the technology extends beyond the U.S. to other regions, such as Europe, where barley is used as a feedstock.

The project is part of Genencor’s focus on current ethanol applications. Genencor will continue to provide scientific expertise and in-house resources to the ERRC collaboration, and will also contribute $100,000 to the project.

The researchers are using superior breeds of barley (with high starch content), which were developed by ERRC and Virginia Tech, making them excellent for ethanol production. Some of the top scientists in the field are working on the project. Genencor’s barley project team is led by senior researcher Dr. Jay Shetty. Genencor has a 25-year history in biofuels technology.

ERRC has a team of approximately 200 Chemists and Engineers at its center in Wyndmoor, PA. ERRC's Crop Conversion Science & Engineering Research Unit, headed by Dr. Kevin Hicks, has approximately 30 researchers who have been conducting research on biofuels for over 15 years.