is achieved in the same fashion I described earlier, utilizing several biological steps to process the corn. First, we disintegrate the corn using different types of enzymes. The next step is to isolate the starch, after which we add an enzyme that converts the starch into sugar. We have engineered a yeast that can chew on this sugar and subsequently turn it into ethanol, effectively closing the process. The benefits of this process, and of ethanol as a fuel source, are manifold. For example, when fueling a car in the US, about ten percent of
Novonesis biological solutions play a vital role in many of the products sold in supermarkets to improve quality, taste or to make them healthier the fuel is ethanol, which effectively replaces a portion of gasoline, a petrochemical-derived compound. Ethanol pollutes significantly less than oil, and there are geopolitical advantages to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Additionally, corn can be grown anywhere, even in backyards, which can increase domestic energy independence by allowing us to produce ethanol-based fuel locally.
“ But that is not even the best part. When analyzing the carbon footprint throughout the entire process, from growing the corn to converting it into ethanol, and comparing it to an oil-based process, we find that using ethanol-based gasoline can reduce overall carbon emissions by up to 40 percent compared to pure petrochemical-based gasoline. Last but not least, consumers in the US benefit at gas stations, as gasoline containing ethanol is cheaper than its purely petrochemical-based alternative. Thus, there are very few downsides to this process.
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