Development of improved cellulase mixtures in a single production organism

Economical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to sugars, ethanol or other chemical feedstocks requires an optimization of the enzymatic breakdown of plant cell walls to monosaccharides. Corn Stover was converted to glucose by dilute acid pretreatment followed by enzymatic digestion with broths containing novel mixtures of proteins expressed in Trichoderma reesei. Optimization included improvement of the pretreatment, alteration of the expressed suite of enzymes, and increased productivity of the expression host, which resulted in significant reduction in the enzyme cost for utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of fuels and chemicals.