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 News
Article
USDA Teams
with Hudson to Increase U.S. Ethanol Production
by 10%. January, 2006
U.S. Department of Agriculture teams with
Hudson Control Group for
Major Increase in U.S. Ethanol Output
USDA has contracted with Hudson Control Group, Inc., of Springfield, New Jersey,
to help develop a new yeast gene with the potential to increase the amount of
fuel ethanol obtained from a bushel of corn by 10%.
Hudson has designed and built a one-of-a-kind robot system that, for the first
time, enables USDA researchers to fully automate the process of decoding the
genetic actions of brewers’ yeast (the standard means of producing fuel
ethanol). Currently, yeast converts only the starch in corn into ethanol in
today’s fuel ethanol plants.
The goal of this research is to create new genes that will convert the
substances in corn and agricultural waste that are currently untouched by
natural yeast strains. This unique system is designed to allow USDA researchers
to unravel the complex processes that would enable yeast to convert these fiber
materials into ethanol.
The project’s immediate objective is the development of a new gene that will
enable yeast to convert both starch and the sugars in corn fiber, which is
currently untouched. Between 10% and 20% of corn’s potential ethanol sources are
found in its cellulose fiber. Converting the cellulose to ethanol would mean
dramatically higher yields of fuel from the same quantities of corn. Moreover,
the same yeast strain that would digest the corn cellulose could also be used to
convert other forms of biomass, such as agricultural and forestry wastes.
The recent runup in gasoline prices highlights the importance of this research.
The latest federal energy bill mandates that ethanol ultimately replace 15% of
petroleum in motor fuels. Increased ethanol production from cellulose may be the
only means of achieving this goal.
This research has been in progress at Hudson’s New Jersey facility since January
2005 and is expected to conclude in the summer of 2006. If successful, its
outcome will be of enormous benefit to the country’s effort to ease effects of
high oil prices and supply shortages by substituting ethanol for gasoline.
Many of the genetic manipulation techniques being performed by the system have
never been tried before, and have certainly never been automated. Requiring
hundreds of thousand repetitions of chemical reactions and process steps, this
research must be automated if it is to be successfully attempted.
The robot system provided by Hudson has enabled USDA scientists to make
meaningful progress toward their goal in only a few months of effort thus far.
It is currently fully-operational and performs tasks that are not possible in
any other automation system built to date.
Hudson’s engineers are working steadily with USDA scientists to implement the
automation of novel genetic techniques that are being developed and evolved
during the course of the research. This team concept enables USDA researchers to
apply their scientific knowledge while a team of Hudson’s robot engineers puts
their ideas into practice on the system. In this way, this important research
gets the full benefits of each organization’s unique expertise in an ongoing
collaboration. A recent photo of the system appears below.
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