Researchers found new enzyme to speed up sugar to biofuel

Australian researchers have found a way to more effectively convert sugarcane into the building block of aviation fuel, and other products like rubber and plastics.

Sugarcane (and its waste product) is one of the crops that has shown promise in being turned into ‘biofuel’, which could one day lower aviation’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The team – based at UQ and the Technical University of Munich – was able to create an enzyme called PuDHT that sped up the step from turning sugar into pyruvate and then into a useful feedstock chemical called isobutanol.

Isobutanol is a bit like the self-raising flour for chemists. It’s an ‘ingredient’ that can be used in a variety of ways to make anything from fuels, plastics, rubbers and food additives.

The team also tested using manganese and magnesium ions to speed up the process even more.

Cell-based production of isobutanol from sugar creates about 25 grams per litre of liquid cell culture, but, the ‘cell-free’ method in the new study produced at least 10 times that amount.

If researchers can secure enough enzymes at a cost that is economically viable, this method could be used in ‘bulk’ products like aviation biofuel.