The world needs to develop significant, viable alternatives to petroleum-based transportation fuels. In particular, ethanol fuel derived from plant sources, cellulosic ethanol, is positioned to become a significant component of the transportation fuel landscape. Ethanol is readily useable as a… More

The development of commercially-viable, cellulosic ethanol biofuels technology has emerged as a national priority. However, the crystalline structure of cellulose constitutes a major barrier to the efficient conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable polymers and sugars, with significant… More

Development of cellulosic ethanol biofuels technology has emerged as a national priority. Clostridium phytofermentans is a novel, naturally occurring microbe that directly converts a broad-range of complex lignocellulosic materials, with ethanol as its primary fermentation by-product. Because it can… More

This Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) research utilizes the anaerobic digestion by Clostridium phytofermentans (C-phy), which has an unusually broad substrate range and is capable of fermenting all major carbohydrate components of the plant cell wall directly to hydrogen without… More