Microbiologists at TU Muenchen aim to optimise bio-ethanol production
Friday, February 4, 2011 - 11:52
in Earth & Climate
Food versus fuel - this rivalry is gaining significance against a backdrop of increasingly scarce farmland and a concurrent trend towards the use of bio-fuels. Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are helping to resolve this rivalry: They are working to effectively utilise residual field crop material - which has been difficult to use thus far - for the industrial production of bio-ethanol. They took a closer look at bacteria that transform cellulose into sugar, thereby increasing the energy yield from plants utilised. If this approach works, both bread and bio-fuel could come from the same harvest in the future...