Improving enzymes for saccharafication of sustainable cellulosic biomass for biofuel production

Cellulosic biofuels promise a sustainable, renewable path to replacing the ~200 billion gallons of fuel consumed in the United States in 2008, but the key hurdle is how to economically convert cellulosic biomass into liquid fuels. Cellulose, the most abundant natural polymer on earth, is made of sugar molecules connected by difficult-to-break bonds. To make fuels from cellulosic biomass, it must be broken down into fermentable sugars, which is done industrially with biochemical processes that use inefficient and thus expensive proteins. Increasing their efficiency presents the best opportunity to decrease the cost of this critical cellulosic biofuel processing step, making sustainable, cellulosic biofuels cost competitive with fossil fuels. The aim of this Phase I SBIR is to demonstrate an ultra-fast biochemical platform to double the efficiency of biomass conversion to glucose. The effectiveness of this type of approach depends on two factors: how many variations can be tested, and how accurate or relevant the testing conditions are. The more variations that can be tested-that is, the higher the throughput-the more likely a newer, more efficient protein can be found. However, current high-throughput approaches do not test against the actual, solid biomass that will be eventually used in the production of biofuels, instead relying on easy-to-use, water soluble proxies . Our technique meets both challenges, to test against solid biomass components with throughput millions of times higher than competing technologies.