May I ask about the technological development of ethanol production from cellulose?
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Our laboratory is working on producing ethanol from cellulose. Many universities and research institutions have already carried out this work, and there are also some process routes available. But we don’t know where to start if we do it on our own; we can’t follow someone else’s path, right? Some pre-treatment was carried out, as well as some cellulase fermentation, but the enzyme activity was too low. Synchronous saccharification-fermentation was also tried, but the results were not very good either. Isn’t this just repetition? Where should I start?
In fact, the key aspects of cellulose ethanol and butanol production lie in preprocessing, enzymes, and microbial strains. However, none of these aspects are easy to handle, and it takes time to achieve success in these areas; especially when it comes to enzymes. companies like Genencor and Novozymes have been working on this for many years, while Purdue University has been screening microbial strains for decades as well. It is now time to refer to Lynd’s CBP for the optimization and integration of the process; simply optimizing the combination of the basic modular units will suffice. Currently, there are already many pilot plants and demonstration facilities, especially in the United States. Currently, cellulose ethanol is represented most notably by NERL, Purdue, Dartmouth College, and the USDA.
What is being done now is that there is already a lot of technical expertise available; one can first study the current state of research, and then, based on the technical capabilities of one’s own laboratory as well as the actual circumstances, create something innovative by building on one’s strengths. If one always follows in the footsteps of others, it’s certainly impossible to achieve significant breakthroughs.