Enzymes, energy, and the environment: A strategic perspective on the US Department of Energy's Research and Development Activities for Bioethanol

For well over one hundred years, researchers around the world have pursued ways to make ethanol from biomass such as wood, grasses, and waste materials. To distinguish it from ethanol made from starch and sugars in traditional agricultural crops, we refer to ethanol made from biomass as "bioethanol." The effort to develop bioethanol technology gained significant momentum in the late 1970s as a result of the energy crises that occurred in that decade. This article briefly reviews the broader history of bioethanol technology development. With this as a background, we focus our attention on the strategic thinking behind the U.S. Department of Energy's Bioethanol Program, which envisions remarkable advances in cellulase enzyme research and as the basis for significant future process cost reductions.