Engineering enzymes for energy production

David L. Ollis*, Jian Wei Liu, Bradley J. Stevenson

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Harvesting the energy of sunlight can be achieved with a variety of processes and as one becomes obsolete, others will need to be developed to replace it. The direct conversion of sunlight into electrical energy could be used to provide power. Energy could also be obtained by combusting hydrogen produced by splitting of water with sunlight. None of these direct approaches will entirely satisfy the entire energy needs of a modern economy and the conversion of biological materials into liquid fuels for transport and other applications may prove to be important for tomorrow's energy needs. In fact, biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel are already used in many countries. However, the long-term viability of these fuels depends on the efficiency of the processes used to produce them. We outline here a method by which ethanol can be produced using enzymes that can be optimized for this purpose.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)652-655
    Number of pages4
    JournalAustralian Journal of Chemistry
    Volume65
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

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