A Conversation with Blake Simmons, Vice President, Deconstruction Division, and Jon Magnuson, Director, Fungal Biotechnology Group, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA

摘要

INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY: The Fungal Biotechnology Group is a relatively new addition to the Deconstruction Division of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). BLAKE SIMMONS: At JBEI, we are focused on developing the science and technology around new ways to convert biomass into advanced drop-in fuels. We have teams working on all major elements of the biomass conversion process: Feedstocks, Deconstruction, Fuel Synthesis, and Technologies. In the De-construction Division, the group that I lead, we are tasked with developing new ways to liberate fermentable sugars from lig-nocellulose. One of the foundational technologies we have developed is based on ionic liquids, and the use of glycoside hydrolase enzymes remains a key feature in the production of sugars using that technology. In order to develop and optimize enzyme cocktails that perform well under industrially relevant conditions, you need a lot of enzyme to explore fully the parameter space.