New strain of super yeast turns pine into Ethanol

A super strain of yeast has been developed by researchers at the University of Georgia ferments pretreated pine into ethanol very efficiently. This new breakthrough could help drive biofuels as a replacement for gasoline as a transport fuel. “Companies are interested in producing ethanol from woody biomass such as pine, but it is a notoriously difficult material for fermentations,” said Joy Doran-Peterson, associate professor of microbiology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Read more ...