The Zymethis Process, the bio-fuel solution?

[hsmith]

My father was talking about this over the past weekend. He has met the professors before and they talked about this bacteria they found and patented.

Basically, all it does is convert any cellulose into sugar for the production of ethanol. I mean, ANY biomass can be used. Old paper, corn stalks, wood, clippings from your yard.

UM Invention Promises Major Advance in BioFuel Production :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland

University of Maryland research that started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay has led to a process that may be able to convert large volumes of all kinds of plant products, from leftover brewer's mash to paper trash, into ethanol and other biofuel alternatives to gasoline.

That process, developed by University of Maryland professors Steve Hutcheson and Ron Weiner, professors of cell biology and molecular genetics, is the foundation of their incubator company Zymetis, which was on view today in College Park for Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and state and university officials.

"The new Zymetis technology is a win for the State of Maryland , for the University and for the environment," said University of Maryland President C.D. Mote, Jr. "It makes affordable ethanol production a reality and makes it from waste materials, which benefits everyone and supports the green-friendly goal of carbon-neutrality.

"It also highlights the importance of transformational basic research and of technology incubators at the University. Partnership with the State enables University of Maryland faculty and students to commercialize new discoveries quickly."

"Today, Marylanders are leading the nation in scientific discovery and technology innovation," said Governor Martin O'Malley. "We must continue to invest in Marylanders like Steve Hutcheson and in their revolutionary ideas to protect our environment, create jobs, and improve lives."

75 Billion Gallons a Year

The Zymetis process can make ethanol and other biofuels from many different types of plants and plant waste called cellulosic sources. Cellulosic biofuels can be made from non- grain plant sources such as waste paper, brewing byproducts, leftover agriculture products, including straw, corncobs and husks, and energy crops such as switchgrass.

When fully operational, the Zymetis process could potentially lead to the production of 75 billion gallons a year of carbon-neutral ethanol.

The secret to the Zymetis process is a Chesapeake Bay marsh grass bacterium, S. degradans. Hutcheson found that the bacterium has an enzyme that could quickly break down plant materials into sugar, which can then be converted to biofuel.

The Zymetis researchers were unable to isolate the Bay bacterium again in nature, but they discovered how to produce the enzyme in their own laboratories. The result was Ethazyme, which degrades the tough cell walls of cellulosic materials and breaks down the entire plant material into bio-fuel ready sugars in one step, at a significantly lower cost and with fewer caustic chemicals than current methods.

Hutcheson projects a $5 billion enzyme market for biofuels. The energy bill passed by the U.S. Senate in December mandates oil companies to blend in 21 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol with their gasoline by 2022.

Inventors of the Year

Hutcheson and Weiner won the university's Office of Technology Commercialization Inventor of the Year Award in 2007 in the Life Science category for their enzyme system invention.

Founded in 2006, Zymetis entered the university's MTECH VentureAccelerator Program, which provides hands-on business assistance to faculty and students interested in forming companies around university-created technologies. "MTECH VentureAccelerator helped us validate our market," says Hutcheson. "They found space for our company. They helped us with licensing our technology, forming financial and business plans, and establishing trademarks."

Zymetis also sought expertise from MTECH's Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF) staff to determine how to mass-produce S. degradans. The BSF is part of the MTECH Biotechnology Research and Education Program, an initiative dedicated to research, education and the development of biotechnology products and processes for Maryland companies.

Question is, why aren't we seeing more news on things like this. Their projected "production" is 75billion barrels, which is 1/2 of the US need. Not the complete solution, but it would help a lot.

Plus, we wouldn't be using our FOOD SOURCE to fuel our vehicles. We wouldn't be cutting off exports to starving countries, we wouldn't be forcing our countrymen to forgo food because we need to power our SUV's.

[kinggovernor]

didn't they do that in back to the future

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

didn't they do that in back to the future

But I mean, carbon neutral creation of fuel? That is fucking impressive. Instead of turning ears of corn which is food into fuel, we could turn the wasteful stalks, which have much more mass into fuel.

[Ardentfrost]

they patented bacteria? wtf

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

they patented bacteria? wtf

maybe the process

[AVengeance]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

they patented bacteria? wtf

Genetically engineered custom germ. Yea, patented. Why not? It's their germ. They made it.

Hell, if I invented a germ that went into the human body and ate all the cancer cells, I'd want to patent it, too.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

they patented bacteria? wtf

I have been meaning to create a thread about patent and the patent reform bill passed by the house and under debate in the senate now.

[AVengeance]

Originally Posted by hsmith

...
Plus, we wouldn't be using our FOOD SOURCE to fuel our vehicles. We wouldn't be cutting off exports to starving countries, we wouldn't be forcing our countrymen to forgo food because we need to power our SUV's.

Ethanol from corn is far from a perfect solution, but it's a good start. Using what we learn from trying to make it a better process, we can get vehicles running on alcohol (like all the flex-fuel cars out now that can run on any mixture of gasoline and up to 85% ethanol), and we can get the infrastructure created. All of this creates a brighter future for these new technologies that are being worked on.

There are people pissing and moaning through the whole thing, not looking at the bigger picture. They point to starving babies in some other country because we should be giving that country our corn instead of making it into ethanol. The point to the invisible flame that pure alcohol makes, and say fire departments are not equipped to fight invisible fires. They point to the ethanol plant using a lot of water, and say we're going to dry up the water resources.

Basically, whenever there's a solution, even just a little bit, people want to bitch and moan so they can continue UNCHANGED into the future.

The only time you'll hear about this solution is when it's tied into corn ethanol, and it's so much fun to bitch about that, the new news just gets drowned out in the noise.

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by AVengeance

Genetically engineered custom germ. Yea, patented. Why not? It's their germ. They made it.

Hell, if I invented a germ that went into the human body and ate all the cancer cells, I'd want to patent it, too.

All I saw was that they FOUND a bacteria and developed a process to use the bacteria to make the ethanol. Had it said they engineered a bacteria, that'd be something different.

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

All I saw was that they FOUND a bacteria and developed a process to use the bacteria to make the ethanol. Had it said they engineered a bacteria, that'd be something different.

I believe they found it and modified it a bit.

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by hsmith

I believe they found it and modified it a bit.

According to article all they did was extract an enzyme. Extraction of enzymes happens everyday in bio labs across the world

I mean, I can only go by what the article says. They took a bacterium from the Chesapeak Bay, extracted an enzyme. Even if they are the first ones to ever discover that enzyme, it's not patentable because they didn't make it. Now, it looks like they've done SOMETHING beyond that since they call it the "Zymethis Process," and patenting the process would be acceptable as long it's more complex than extracting the enzyme and just throwing it on a pile of garbage willy-nilly.

You can't patent what God or evolution or whatever created. That's just ridiculous. I'm sure there's more to it than what they are saying in the article, I'm just commenting on what was said.

[kinggovernor]

Abstract
The present invention relates to the discovery of a gene in a bacterium expressing a protein that has an activity similar to plant phytochelatin synthetase. This gene was discovered in the marine γ-proteobacterium Microbulbifer degradans strain 2-40, and is cloned and expressed in the bacterium Escherichia coli. Bacteria expressing this gene are useful in remediation of contaminated solids and liquids and in the extraction of rare and/or valuable metals.

Application number: 10/875,221
Publication number: US 2005/0136426 A1
Filing date: Jun 25, 2004
Inventors: Michael Howard, Steven Wayne Hutcheson, Ronald M. Weiner


U.S. Classification
435006000; 435069300; 435320100; 435193000; 435252330; 536023200

International Classification
C12Q001/68; C07H021/04; C12N009/10; C12N015/74


What is claimed is:
1. An isolated polynucleotide comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1.

2. An isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2.

2. An isolated polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2.

3. An isolated polynucleotide complementary to SEQ ID NO:1 under a stringency condition of from 1×SSC to 10×SSC.

4. A chimeric gene comprising at least one polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2.

5. The chimeric gene of claim 4, wherein the at least one polynucleotide is SEQ ID NO:1 and wherein the gene is operably linked to regulatory sequences that allow the expression of the amino acid sequence in a host cell.

6. The chimeric gene of claim 4 contained in a host cell.

7. The chimeric gene of claim 6, wherein the host cell is an Escherichia coli cell.

8. A vector comprising the chimeric gene of claim 4.

9. A vector comprising SEQ ID NO:1.

10. An isolated polypeptide expressed in Escherichia coli coding for a polypeptide having phytochelatin synthetase activity.

11. A method for isolating at least one metal from a mixture, the method comprising:

a) exposing at least one bacterium expressing phytochelatin synthetase activity to the mixture;
b) allowing the at least one bacterium to sequester the at least one metal;
c) isolating the at least one bacterium from the mixture, and
d) optionally isolating the at least one metal from the at least one bacterium.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one bacterium is selected from M. degradans or E. coli.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one metal is selected from Ag, Au, Cd, Cu, Hg, Mo, Ni, Pb, Pd, Pt, Sn, or Ti.

14. A method for remediating an area comprising at least one metal, the method comprising:

a) treating the area with at least one bacterium expressing phytochelatin synthetase activity;
b) allowing the at least one bacterium to sequester the at least one metal;
c) isolating the at least one bacterium from the area, and
d) optionally isolating the at least one metal from the at least one bacterium.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one bacterium comprises a polynucleotide further comprising SEQ ID NO:1.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one bacterium expresses a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO:2.

17. An apparatus for the extraction of at least one metal, the apparatus comprising:

a) at least one vessel comprising an organism able to express phytochelatin synthetase;
b) an inlet for a first composition comprising the at least one metal; and
c) a first outlet for a second composition not comprising the at least one metal.
18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising a second outlet for a third composition comprising the at least one metal.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one organism is selected from one of M. degradans and E. coli.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one metal is selected from Ag, Au, Cd, Cu, Hg, Mo, Ni, Pb, Pd, Pt, Sn, or Ti.

21. A method for identifying at least one nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having phytochelatin synthetase activity from M. degradans, the method comprising constructing an M. degradans genomic library in E. coli and screening the library for phytochelatin synthetase activity.


It is an application, still under review.

[thewise1]

What happens if a human gets thrown into a vat of it

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by thewise1

What happens if a human gets thrown into a vat of it

Picture that you are a birthday cake, and that stuff is a cat... here is the result:

[thewise1]

I LOL'd