Amyris hit stage one goals during biofene creation

Renewable products company Amyris, in collaboration with its partners as part of the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC), has produced renewable farnesene (biofene) via fermenting lingo-cellulosic sugars.

Amyris is leading the NABC’s Fermentation of Ligno-cellulosic Sugars (FLS) strategy and has aimed to merge its isoprenoid-yeast platform with the ability to use cellulosic sugars derived from non-food biomass.

Farnesene is a hydrocarbon that can be hydrogenated to a diesel or jet fuel component or used as a chemical precursor in a wide variety of applications.

Amyris met FLS Stage One goals within the one-year time frame by using Microbiogen’s non-GMO S. cerevisiae strains that were previously evolved for efficient xylose consumption and tolerance to traditional hydrolysate inhibitors as base strains for further engineering.

Based on the success of producing farnesene from a mixed glucose and xylose sugar stream, Amyris was selected to continue onto Stage Two, which will continue through to September 2013.

The other partners in the NABC are Catchlight Energy, Iowa State University, Washington State University and NREL.