A two-year extension of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Genencor and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service, Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) has been signed it was announced today (11th December).  The move will see a continuation of the joint development program by the partners to develop an economically viable process for converting winter barley, a non-food crop, into ethanol.

"We have already made significant progress through our collaborative research with ERRC, including using enzymes to break down beta-glucans in barley to increase ethanol yield," says Glenn Nedwin, Executive Vice President for Technical Enzymes for Genencor. "In this next phase, we will tackle the remaining challenges to develop an efficient, cost-effective process and bring it to commercial scale." Potential for the technology extends beyond the U.S. to other regions, such as Europe, where barley is used as a feedstock.

The project is part of Genencor's focus on current ethanol applications. Genencor will continue to provide scientific expertise and in-house resources to the ERRC collaboration, and will also contribute $100,000 to the project.

The researchers are using superior breeds of barley (with high starch content), which were developed by ERRC and Virginia Tech, making them excellent for ethanol production.