The price of oil is increasing day by day for which there is a very pressing need to carve out alternatives to gasoline. To boost bio-fuel production scientists are looking for new enzymes.
America is expected to spend billions of dollars for the development of new alternative fuel technologies.
To reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next decade, there is a need for $179 million for bio-fuel research. The digestive processes are cheaper alternatives to gasoline.
A new technology using enzymes or bacteria to produce ethanol from a wide variety of plant fibers is initiated which enormously increases the diversity of available feedstock for making ethanol. The scientists are interested in ways to make the conversion process more efficient, with cellulose rather than corn serving as the raw material for ethanol.
Researchers such have been analyzing microbes extracted from the termite’s digestive system, looking for the enzymes that enable the bugs to turn wood cellulose into sugars. They are of view that bio-fuels will make impact on the energy economy.
The Agriculture Department projected that the demand for ethanol would lead to a 40 percent increase in the nation’s corn crop by 2016.
The government has set aside $375 million to fund bio-energy research centers to reach the goal of using 35 billion gallons of bio-fuels in 2017.
Source: MSNBC
