The Isolation and Performance Studies of an Alginate Degrading and Ethanol Producing Strain

With the limited fossil fuel resources and aggravating energy crisis, coupled with the concern about the climate change caused by greenhouse gases, many people hope that renewable fuels will be developed as an alternative to fossil fuels, with special attention being paid to bioethanol.1,2 Compared to fossil fuels, biofuels emit less ozone, benzene, carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants. For a long time, bioethanol has been raising world-wide attention and many researchers are searching for alternative biomass sources for the production of bioethanol, such as corn,4 wood,5 sugarcane6 switch grass,7 rice straw,8 corn straw9 and wheat straw.10 Today, about 30 % of the corn currently grown is used for ethanol production, and more corn is needed to meet the increasing demand for bioethanol.11 The higher amounts of corn turned to biofuel production could have devastating effects on food supply around the world and cause conflicts in the food vs. fuel dilemma. Ethanol production from lignocellulose is a promising alternative but the current technologies for lignocellulose fermentation have to overcome the cost of the complex processes needed to release simple sugars from recalcitrant polysaccharides.12 With limited land area, pretreatment technical difficulties and low conversion rate, much more needs to be done in bioethanol production from lignocellulose. And the increasing need for energy consumption is expected to continue as the world’s population is expected to increase. In order to meet the expected increasing demand for bioethanol, there is a need to find alternative biomass sources, particularly those that do not rely on using large amounts of agricultural land. Marine algae are attractive renewable energy resources due to their abundance, high photosynthetic efficiency and production rate. Algae contain a low concentration of lignin and sugars can be easily released by simple operations such as milling or crushing, so seaweeds are proposed as one of the most promising biomass materials for ethanol production.13 Marine algae are classified into three groups by their colors: green, brown, and red. Brown algae, as the second most abundant marine biomass, have several key features of an ideal feedstock for biofuel production. They do not require arable land, fertilizer, or fresh water, they are of The Isolation and Performance Studies of an Alginate Degrading and Ethanol Producing Strain