Genencor Launches First Commercial Enzyme Product for Cellulosic Ethanol

15 October 2007

Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, introduced Accellerase 1000, the first commercially available biomass enzyme developed specifically for second generation biorefineries. Accellerase 1000 contains a complex of enzymes that reduces complex lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars.

Genencor has been developing its biomass enzymes for more than 10 years. The effort was partially supported by contracts with the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Accellerase 1000 is the first in what the company expects to be a family of products tailored to different biomass feedstocks and system conditions. The key features that are expected to be important at commercial scale are already built into this first product.

Benefits of Accellerase include:

• Enhanced saccharification performance on a variety of feedstocks.

• Ability to operate in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) processes, two step sequential hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) processes or hybrids of the two.

• High ß-glucosidase activity to minimize residual cellobiose, which may lead to a higher saccharification and ultimately to a faster ethanol fermentation. Yields may also be improved.

• Unclarified product. The remaining nutrients from enzyme production are available to the yeast in addition to the fermentable sugars produced by saccharification.

• Minimal formulation to ensure that enzyme formulation chemicals do not interfere with saccharification carbohydrate profile analysis or subsequent yeast fermentation.