Posted: 15 Feb 2013 05:37 AM PST
The biofuel fuel vs. food
debate has really been getting a workout this year, especially in the
U.S. where a historic, devastating drought has put the squeeze on corn
ethanol. More sustainable biofuel crops like perennial grasses and shrub
willow are under development, but the sugars in plants like these are
locked away behind tough, woody cell walls, and getting at them can be a
costly process. Now researchers at Brown University have found a bacteria called Streptomyces, which could be deployed as a microscopic “biorefinery” to get the job done.
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