According to Farmacule chairman Mel Bridges, the INPACT (In-Plant Activation) technology, which has been co-developed by Farmacule’s research partner, the Queensland University of Technology, has been used to modify sugarcane plants to enable the highly efficient conversion of cellulose into fermentable sugars after crushing.
The remaining sugars can then be used efficiently to produce bioethanol, leaving the sucrose untouched and available for the consumer sugar market.
Bridges said the concept, known as cellulosic bioethanol, was the next generation of ethanol production techniques because it aimed to produce higher yields per hectare at costs lower than current techniques allow.
"President Bush recently endorsed the cellulosic bioethanol approach, suggesting that it may come to market within six years," Bridges said.
"Farmacule's genetic technology will make this a reality, producing viable plants that contain the cellulase enzyme to enable the cost-efficient production of ethanol as a byproduct of the sugarcane."
Farmacule's proprietary technology uses cellulase in the sugarcane leaf material to convert cellulose to fermentable sugars that could then be converted to bioethanol.
"The key to our approach will be to generate plants in which the over-expression of high levels of cellulase is tightly controlled, and activated when required, using our technology. This ensures that the sucrose used for consumer sugar is not sacrificed in any way – we would just be using the waste that's left after the sucrose is extracted," Bridges said.
Farmacule BioIndustries is a developer of molecular farming technology to cost-effectively mass produce high-value proteins, biofuels and bioplastics in plants for various applications.
