Novozymes advances commercialization of biomass to ethanol with innovations in biotechnology

2014 was a pivotal year for renewable fuels, as a number of commercial scale facilities came on line utilizing biochemical conversion technology to produce fuel from biomass (GranBio’s BioFlex1 plant in Brazil, Poet-DSM’s Liberty plant in US, Abengoa’s facility in Hugoton, US and Raizen’s Costa Pinto plant in Brazil). As these and other industry front-runners ramp up production, the underlying technologies are being tested, and it is critical that robust performance is delivered by the biological catalysts used in the process. Since the launch of Cellic® CTec3, Novozymes has continued the development of enzymes to create further improvements for key partners. Progress on enzyme development in a commercial context will be discussed. Biotechnological innovations are supporting the nascent biomass to ethanol industry and helping partners move down the cost curve in production, to create economically feasible alternative transportation fuels for the future.