ABOUT THE PROJECT

Waste biomass, such as agricultural residues, has unrealized potential to be a critical feedstock in the production of net-zero fuels and chemicals. Current solutions for the conversion of these residues have faced technical challenges due to the difficulty and cost in the crucial step of degrading this biomass into utilizable free sugars.

Celluol has engineered a bacterium that can directly degrade and ferment waste biomass into ethanol using a one-step process similar to how we make beer or wine. This breakthrough directly addresses the challenges encountered by current cellulosic conversion technologies, simplifying the process and making it significantly less expensive.

Celluol’s simpler and cheaper process can be rapidly deployed, starting by co-locating at first generation ethanol plants that currently use corn or sugarcane and have abundant biomass wastes. By further capturing and converting the CO₂ produced during the fermentation process into ethanol, Celluol’s technology has the potential to decrease the amount of land required for sustainable biofuel production by up to three times.