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Mar 10, 2008 5:32 pm US/Eastern
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Bacteria Breaking Down Grass Could Aid In Ethanol
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (WJZ) ―
A rare find in the Chesapeake Bay may eventually find its way into your gas tank, and it could cost a lot less than what you're paying now.
Alex DeMetrick reports, it's the microscopic bug that turns trash into ethanol.
Twenty years ago, marsh grass in the Chesapeake was dying for unknown reasons.
Even stranger, the dead grass was disappearing.
What should have clogging the water was being eaten away by a newly discovered bacterium.
"And then we realized it eats everything. And to eat everything it produced enzymes to do that. And those enzymes were precisely what the cellulosic ethanol needed," said Dr. Steve Hutchings with Zymetis Inc.
They were what it needed to make ethanol.
A biological curiosity for years, the bacterium's potential was unlocked at the University Of Maryland which is helping to turn the find into a business.
The Governor was given a tour on Monday.
Cellulose is what makes up most of the corn plant. It includes the leaves and the cob but not the corn kernels.
Cellulose is what the bacterial enzymes break down; it's also what makes paper and cardboard, which are on the bacterium's menu.
Right now, corn is in demand to make ethanol which has been increasing the cost of food, but bacterial enzymes can turn waste products into the fuel for a lot less money and leave the food chain alone.
Here's the luckiest part, the bacteria growing in the lab are off-spring from 20 years ago.
It has not been seen again since its first appearance.
To be practical, the discovery in the lab must be scaled up.
The newly formed company on the College Park campus expects to do that before the end of this year.
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