Researchers Produce Sugars from Biomass Sans Enzyme

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a non-enzymatic process that can produce sugars from plant materials like crop residues and wood, which can be chemically or biologically upgraded into biofuels. A paper on this work was published recently in the journal Science.

The research team demonstrated a laboratory-scale process that used a solvent mixture of plant-derived γ-valerolactone (GVL), water, and dilute acid to produce soluble carbohydrates from corn stover, hardwood, and softwood at high yields (70 to 90 percent). The GVL promotes thermocatalytic degradation of the biomass. The team showed that the resulting sugar stream can be fermented by yeast into ethanol and the GVL can be recovered from the mixture for re-use after the sugar is concentrated.

GVL, a plant-derived chemical itself, is both renewable and more affordable than expensive chemicals or enzymes used in the conversion process. The team estimated through a preliminary economic assessment of the process that their promising technology could produce ethanol at a cost savings of roughly 10 percent when compared with current production technologies.

The team will begin scaling up the process later this year.