India’s aim to achieve the 10 per cent ethanol blending target may have got a fillip as scientists have identified an indigenous solution to meet the enzyme needs for harnessing the fuel from waste.

Speaking to BusinessLine , New Delhi-based scientist of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Brajesh Barse, said, “The enzyme can produce ethanol from agricultural wastes such as rice and wheat straw.” Traditionally, ethanol production is from sugarcane molasses and the process of conversion is guided by Amylase enzymes. These enzymes are largely imported and constitute a bulk of the cost of production.

According to an official statement from ICGEB, “The new fungal source Penicillium funiculosum could be a strong alternative in the industrial enzyme repertoire for biofuel production.”

The newly identified GH7 cellobiohydrolase (PfCBH1) produces 5 times more sugar as compared to currently popular Trichoderma reesei (TrCBH1). The higher sugar content is treated with a yeast solution to harness bio-ethanol.Syed Shams Yazdani and his group from ICGEB’s Microbial Engineering department have found that P. funiculosum effectively produces the enzyme GH7 cellobiohydrolases (CBH1) – vital for the breakdown of cellulose – just as its fungal cousin Trichoderma reesei, which is mostly used in the industrial enzyme cocktails.

Scientists have peered into a fungal gene to identify enzymes that break down cellulose into simple sugars. These ‘cellulolytic’ (cellulose breaking) enzymes obtained from a microbial source are in high demand in the biofuel production industry and are currently obtained from one industrial workhorse fungus.

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