Maryland scientists to commercialize bacterium that turns dead plant matter into ethanol

Scientists at the University of Maryland and Zymnetis Inc. will commercialize a bacterium that has more potential than any other to make ethanol of all sorts of organic matter, they announced today. "There's nothing out there that compares to it," researcher Steven Hutcheson told The Washington Post.

"The bacterium Saccarophagus degradans, or sugar eater, can create a mix of enzymes that degrades plant matter. It has the largest known concentration of enzymes that eat carbohydrates, Hutcheson said. . . . The bacterium, which is very difficult to find in nature but easily reproduced in the lab, has turned bench scientists into entrepreneurs," write the Post's Susan Kinzie and David A. Fahrenthold.

"Other scientists said that the U-Md. research might mark a significant step in that struggle but that it was difficult to judge the discovery in detail without more information." One said that if such a bacterium existed, "plants would probably have found a way to defend themselves." Promoters said the bacterium works only on dead plant matter. (Read more) For the university's press release and an embedded video, click here.