NEMO: Novel high performance enzymes and micro-organisms for conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to bioethanol

Second generation lignocellulosic biofuels have the potential of contributing to a sustainable and secure European energy supply for the transport sector. In spite of developments during the last decade, some key technical and economical challenges still remain. One of the major targets for decreasing the production costs of lignocellulosic ethanol includes designing of more efficient enzymes and fermenting organisms tailored for efficient conversion of various European raw materials.

The EC 7th FWP project NEMO aims to have a major contribution to European technology development for accelerating the commercialization of 2nd generation bioethanol. NEMO develops novel efficient enzymes and microbes for 2nd generation bioethanol production. It generates through metabolic engineering and mutagenesis and screening approaches robust yeast strains that have a broad substrate range and can (co-) ferment C6 and C5 sugars to ethanol with high productivity. Also, enzymes will be indentified and improved for hydrolysis of biomasses relevant for Europe. The impact of the NEMO project on 2nd generation bioethanol production is significant because it provides most realistic and widely applicable technologies exploitable by European industries. Impacts go however much beyond bioethanol, as the technology improvements are directly applicable for efficient and economic production of other biofuels and bulk chemicals as well.