Post

Finding a better yeast for biofuels production

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say they are developing yeasts which could improve the efficiency of making biofuels. Dana Wohlbach with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at U.W. Madison says the industrial yeast currently used in the fermentation process does not convert all of the plant sugars. They have been looking at other types of yeast which do break down all of the sugars, they’ve identified the genes which make that possible and transplanted them into conventional yeasts. Wohlbach says the genetically-modified yeast will mean a substantial increase in the amount of biofuel produced by a given plant. The new yeasts could be available within a year.