Sandbox Reserved 655: Difference between revisions
From Proteopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 38: | Line 38: | ||
== '''Applications''' == | == '''Applications''' == | ||
Cellulases represent the third largest class of industrial enzymes worldwide because of their use in cotton processing, paper recycling, as detergent enzymes, in juice extraction, and as animal feed additives. The use of cellulases for the production of renewable fuels from lignocellulosic biomass has the potential to create another large industrial consumer of this class of enzymes (Wilson, 2009). | |||
The growing global demand for energy and the environmental problems caused by the burning of fossil fuels have spurred several efforts to develop renewable alternative fuels (Sticklen, 2008). Global climate change will continue to occur due to the increasing effect of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and political clashes will continue to grow over the control and allocation of these depleting resources, and the costs of these fuels will undoubtedly continue to rise (Merino S.T., and Cherry, J., 2007). One potential approach to producing biofuels is to use the carbohydrate polymers located in tailored crops, such as corn stover and switchgrass, as a source of fermentable sugars ( [Sheehan and Himmel, 1999] and [Simmons et al., 2008]). Cellulose is the main polymer of this biomass and the largest organic carbon reservoir on earth (Festucci-Buselli et al., 2007). Physical and/or chemical pretreatment processes that disrupt the hemicellulose–lignin–cellulose complex in plant cell walls are currently used to make the cellulose accessible to cellulases ( [Sheehan and Himmel, 1999] and [Parsiegla et al., 2008]). In order to make cost-effective biofuels, stable cellulolytic enzymes with high activity in post-pretreatment conditions are essential at an industrial scale of production ( [Wilson, 2009] and [Mahadevan et al., 2008]).The bioconversion process uses enzymes such as endoglucanase to break down cellulose into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol (Figure 6) (Wen, et al., 2009. Researchers have been looking to engineer microorganisms to withstand the harsh conditions of the process and to produce the necessary enzymes abundantly. It is necessary to understand these enzymes more fully and to improve them via protein engineering so that biomass can be efficiently and inexpensively converted into biofuels.) | The growing global demand for energy and the environmental problems caused by the burning of fossil fuels have spurred several efforts to develop renewable alternative fuels (Sticklen, 2008). Global climate change will continue to occur due to the increasing effect of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and political clashes will continue to grow over the control and allocation of these depleting resources, and the costs of these fuels will undoubtedly continue to rise (Merino S.T., and Cherry, J., 2007). One potential approach to producing biofuels is to use the carbohydrate polymers located in tailored crops, such as corn stover and switchgrass, as a source of fermentable sugars ( [Sheehan and Himmel, 1999] and [Simmons et al., 2008]). Cellulose is the main polymer of this biomass and the largest organic carbon reservoir on earth (Festucci-Buselli et al., 2007). Physical and/or chemical pretreatment processes that disrupt the hemicellulose–lignin–cellulose complex in plant cell walls are currently used to make the cellulose accessible to cellulases ( [Sheehan and Himmel, 1999] and [Parsiegla et al., 2008]). In order to make cost-effective biofuels, stable cellulolytic enzymes with high activity in post-pretreatment conditions are essential at an industrial scale of production ( [Wilson, 2009] and [Mahadevan et al., 2008]).The bioconversion process uses enzymes such as endoglucanase to break down cellulose into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol (Figure 6) (Wen, et al., 2009. Researchers have been looking to engineer microorganisms to withstand the harsh conditions of the process and to produce the necessary enzymes abundantly. It is necessary to understand these enzymes more fully and to improve them via protein engineering so that biomass can be efficiently and inexpensively converted into biofuels.) | ||
