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Special
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Written by Sabrina Deparine
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Monday, 08 March 2010 13:31 |
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Page views: 1547 |
A research team from the University of Central Florida has recently made a breakthrough discovery: using tobacco to produce enzyme that can convert orange peels to alternative fuel.
 The study was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. Early as now, the team, headed by Professor Henry Daniell, is claiming that the method they had discovered is more environment-friendly than any of the current methods to produce ethanol. This is because they made use of plant-derived enzymes to break down the components of orange peels which are waste materials.
The process involves breaking down the orange peels into sugar compounds. The sugar is then fermented to ethanol. The same process can be used on other non-edible materials like straw, sugarcane and switchgrass.
Basically, the team identified the genes present in wood-rotting fungi or bacteria which produce the necessary enzymes to break down the waste materials. The team then isolated these genes and cloned them. They were then deposited on tobacco plants for cultivation. The tobacco plant has been selected for this study because it has the ideal facilitator and system to produce the enzyme. It is also non-edible. Every year, an estimated 40 metric tons of biomass are produced per acre of tobacco plants. In addition, using tobacco plants for enzyme production instead of for smoking is a more attractive alternative.
Tobacco-produced enzymes also offer higher probability of decreasing production cost which, in turn, also decreases the cost of ethanol production. This new method also consumes waste materials that are abundant so there is no need to reduce food supply. According to Prof. Daniell, in Florida alone, there are enough throwaway orange peels to generate 200 million gallons of ethanol annually.
Hopefully, the cheaper but greener method can boost the popularity of biofuel. To date, team are still working on further developments that can make it more viable on commercial scale.
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