There's a new enzyme that breaks down everything living more quickly. This might let us use enery sources other than the practice of using food plants for fuel production. Some Norwegian scientists reported it recently. It's simple in theory, but...
Ethanol and methane are alternative energy sources that are made by the decomposition of biomass. We could use shellfish or wood. Finding a quick, efficient means of converting biomass has been without results so far. This means that usually, biofuel is derived from food plants, which we really need to feed people.
We need to design new enzymes to break down possible energy sources into ethanol. The way we currently do it is too expensive and complicated. Oxidohydrolases could make it cheaper and easier to produce biofuel.
They could also help reduce the use of edible plants to produce that biofuel. Large-scale biofuel production will require materials that are readily available. Oxidohydrolases can break down these more sutible materials. What we really need to do is choose what to use and then make it CHEAP.
I like algae and tabacco personally.
I found all this really cool because my dad used to help the government solve this exact problem. Sadly, we still haven't made the production of the needed enzymes fast and cheap, or a way to efficiently implement them. Since I'm thinking of becoming an chemical engineer, this migh be something I will one day have to solve. I'm going to have to put some time into this one.
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