Researchers at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability have developed a novel technique to monitor bioethanol contamination during production. The technique could increase revenue for producers while reducing CO2 emissions by nearly 2 million tons.
Published in Nature Communications, the study demonstrates how strain dynamics are directly involved with process performance. While bacteria contamination of the raw materials has been known to affect fermentation efficiency, until now their characterization did not fully capture their diversity or their true impact on the process.
"Our research provides a comprehensive analysis of microbial populations across all stages of the industrial bioethanol process in two major Brazilian biorefineries. By using a combination of shotgun metagenomics and cultivation-based methods, we identified ecological factors that influence community dynamics and bioconversion efficiency," said Felipe Lino from DTU Biosustain. "The study demonstrates that specific bacterial strains, influenced by temperature, can either hinder or enhance ethanol yield. This improvement could only be achieved with the advanced techniques we utilized."
The results of the study could lead to the development of new microbial or process control solutions to control microbes and increase bioethanol production performance. Once implemented, these changes could result in more cost-effective biofuels while significantly reducing the CO2 emission from their production.