Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Scientists Find Potential Enzymes for Biofuel Production in Cow Rumen

Korea IT Times
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Cows may hold the key to advancing production of second generation biofuels as scientists from the University of Illinois and Washington State University discover new enzymes in the bovine rumen that effectively breakdown switchgrass, a prime feedstock for bioenergy.

The bovine rumen is the cow's primary grass digestion chamber. This chamber holds a range of organisms such as fungi, bacteria, archaea, protista and viruses which process all food matter that pass through the rumen.

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