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‘Super yeast’ has the power to improve economics of biofuels

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered “super yeast” could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

Though Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been the baker’s and brewer’s yeast of choice for centuries, it poses a unique challenge to researchers using it to make biofuel from cellulosic biomass such as grasses, woods, or the nonfood portion of plants.

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