Abstract:
Production of ethanol in a thermophilic bacterium can be achieved by transformation of the bacterium with a heterologous gene encoding pyruvate decarboxylase. The bacterium comprises native alcohol dehydrogenase function and does not comprise a gene encoding a functional lactate dehydrogenase. The bacterium may be grown at elevated temperatures to allow the ethanol to be conveniently removed in a vaporized form from the fermentation medium. Traditional mesophilic microorganisms are incapable of growth at the envisioned elevated temperatures.
Abstract:
A method for production of an animal feed product comprises: a) partial hydrolysis of a fermentation feedstock or the non-ethanol by-product of a fermentation process performed on a fermentation feedstock, which partial hydrolysis converts non starch polysaccharides to soluble oligomers and monomers; b) fermentation of the soluble oligomers and monomers in the partially hydrolysed feedstock or non-ethanol by-product to produce ethanol; e) recovery of the non-ethanol by-product from the fermentation of step b) to produce an animal feed product more specifically an animal feed product with improved nutritional content. A method for production of an animal feed product comprises: a) partial hydrolosis of the non ethanol by-product of a fermentation process performed on a fermentation feedstock, which partial hydrolysis converts non starch polysaccharides to soluble oligomers and monomers; b) recovery of the partially hydrolysed product from step a), to exclude the soluble oligomers and monomers, to produce an animal feed product, more specifically an animal feed product with improved nutritional content. The methods produce an animal feed product with improved nutritional content by virtue of decreased levels of pentose sugars, increased relative protein concentration, decreased relative fibre concentration, decreased levels of soluble oligomers and monomers or decreased levels of reducing sugars.
Abstract:
Fermentation processes for production of ethanol include supplying a thermophilic microorganism lacking lactate dehydrogenase activity with sugars under conditions in which they metabolise them predominantly by the pyruvate-formate lyase pathway. Importantly, the processes also include supplying sufficient glycerol to convert all of the sugars to ethanol. A further embodiment of the invention includes supplying additional glycerol sufficient to convert the exogenous acetate present in biomass hydrolysates into ethanol. Any type of fermentation system can be used for these processes, but a preferred embodiment includes continuous cultures at high temperatures in which ethanol is removed continuously by vacuum evaporation.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to the production of ethanol as a product of bacterial fermentation. In particular this invention relates to a novel method of gene inactivation and gene expression based upon homologous recombination.
Abstract:
A thermophilic microorganism lacks lactate dehydrogenase activity and preferably contains an active pyruvate formate lyase pathway. The thermophilic microorganism contains a gene encoding an NAD-linked formate dehydrogenase. The gene encoding an NAD-linked formate dehydrogenase is preferably a codon optimised version of the gene encoding a thermostable NAD-linked formate dehydrogenase. DNA constructs allow stable expression of the gene encoding an NAD-linked formate dehydrogenase in the thermophilic microorganism. The DNA constructs are based upon use of an insertion sequence to achieve stable expression or recombination to insert the gene encoding an NAD-linked formate dehydrogenase into the lactate dehydrogenase gene, thus achieving gene knockout and new functionality in a single step. The microorganisms are useful in fermentation of sugars to produce ethanol.
Abstract:
A method and an apparatus provide intelligent monitoring and maintenance of a system. The method according to one embodiment accesses data relating to functional components of the system; extracts parameter information for functional components of the system, the step of extracting parameter information including performing inferential processing and trend recognition of the data using previous knowledge about the system, and simulating performance of the system using models of the system and previous knowledge about the system; identifies new information about the system present in extracted parameter information; and provides the new information to the step of extracting parameter information, to be used as previous knowledge.
Abstract:
Production of ethanol in a thermophilic bacterium can be achieved by transformation of the bacterium with a heterologous gene encoding pyruvate decarboxylase. The bacterium comprises native alcohol dehydrogenase function and does not comprise a gene encoding a functional lactate dehydrogenase. The bacterium may be grown at elevated temperatures to allow the ethanol to be conveniently removed in a vaporized form from the fermentation medium. Traditional mesophilic microorganisms are incapable of growth at the envisioned elevated temperatures.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to a bacterium capable of converting sugars into lactic acid or a salt thereof. The invention also relates to a method for producing lactic acid or a salt thereof comprising culturing the bacterium of the present invention. In particular, the present invention provides a thermophilic bacterium capable of converting at least 70% (w/w) of a monosaccharide sugar and a disaccharide sugar into lactic acid or a salt thereof.
Abstract:
Sporulation-deficient variants of thermophilic, facultatively anaerobic, Gram-positive bacteria can be generated using a plasmid transformation system based on a novel method of in vivo methylation. Such bacteria exhibit improved ethanol production-related characteristics.