Sep
19
Mining Exotic Animal Guts for Microbes
September 19, 2013 | Leave a Comment
There is an effort world wide to find microbes to breakdown cellulosic and lignin based vegetable matter for producing fuels. Ashli Brown, Ph.D., at Mississippi State University and her students are working at the gut microbes used to breakdown bamboo. Unlikely as it may sound, giant pandas Ya Ya and Le Le in the Memphis […]
May
10
Ionic liquid pretreatments show great potential as a biomass pretreatment for dissolving lignocellulose and helping to hydrolyze the resulting aqueous solution into fuel sugars. But the best of these ionic liquids so far have required the use of expensive enzymes. Blake Simmons, a chemical engineer who heads the Joint BioEnergy Institute’s (JBEI) Deconstruction Division has […]
Sep
7
On the Enzyme Hunt
September 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Ashli Brown, Ph.D. and colleagues, including graduate student Candace Williams at Mississippi State University have taken the hunt for enzymes to break out the sugars from the super-tough plant material known as lignocellulose in switch grass, corn stalks and wood chips to the Giant Panda. The panda digestive tract contains bacteria with potent effects in […]
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