THE ENZYME KING

BIOETHANOL: Enzymes are the key to efficient and cost-effective production of bioethanol from second generation plants. Converting straw and other biomass to ethanol needs the right enzymes.

Denmark’s Novozymes A/S is the world’s leading manufacturer of enzymes. Most of its production goes to washing powder manufacturers worldwide, but these days enzymes for bioethanol production are increasingly filling the order book, and account for 10% of the company’s revenue.

Enzymes for bioethanol production were already known when Novozymes first started up its own development programme in the 1970s. But the company was quickly able to produce new enzymes through the development of many new technologies. In first generation plants the enzymes break dorn carbohydrates e.g. from maize, and in second generation plants it breaks down cellulose from straw, into simpler sugars, which are then fermented by yeast to produce ethanol.

“Today we supply more than half the market, and I am sure that our current position is the result of development, and spend 12-13% of our total revenues each year on research and development,” says Poul Ruben Andersen, marketing director of Novozymes.

Growing market
“Ethanol added to petrol currently accounts for only a tiny proportion of world consumption of fuel, but in the western world there is a collective will to make it much greater. The USA aims to increase its ethanol consumption sevenfold by 2017, while in the EU the objective is to increase the percentage of ethanol in petrol from 2% to 10% by 2020,” explains Poul Ruben Andersen.

One of the challenges regarding cost-efficient production of bioethanol from second generation plants is that the enzymes currently account for no less than half the production price.

“We aim to make the enzymes four to five times better, while keeping the price on a par with enzymes for production of ethanol in first generation plants,” says Poul Ruben Andersen.

Novozymes is collaborating on the development of second generation bioethanol plants in USA, China and Denmark.

“Second generation plants are essential in order to meet political objectives,” says Poul Ruben Andersen. “We believe we will get there in 4-5 years, and reckon that in the long term bioethanol will replace at least half of the petrol and diesel the world uses.”

http://www.novozymes.com

Novozymes has entered an agreement with China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuff Corporation, COFCO, to supply enzymes to COFCO’s new bioethanol plant in Harbin. By 2011, the Chinese concern aims to become the world’s largest manufacturer of bioethanol produced in second generation plants.

In February, US President George W. Bush visited the Novozymes enzyme facility in Franklinton, North Carolina. The President used the visit to flag the administration’s goal of reducing gasoline consumption by 20% in the next 10 years, by using alternative fuels such as bioethanol. Novozymes President and CEO Steen Riisgaard forecasts a 20% annual increase in sales to the US in the coming years.