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Mascoma's Cheap Ethanol Bacteria is Ready

Posted on September 17, 2008

Researchers at Dartmouth have genetically engineered a bacterium that makes ethanol as the only product of its fermentation from breaking down products like wood and grass. Researchers in the school's engineering department working with Mascoma Corporation have come up with the first step, a proof of concept, of ethanol-producing microbes that can make ethanol from cellulosic biomass without adding enzymes. The next step is developing the bacterium for commercial production of cellulosic ethanol.Mascoma's has been extolling it's system for a while now, saying they were certain that they'd have...

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biomass , cellulosic biomass , cellulosic ethanol , ethanol