Unprecedented enzyme class prospected in Brazilian soil can increase biorefinery efficiency and accelerate the sustainable production of energy and chemicals
A new enzyme class discovered in Brazilian soil represents one of the main advances in recent decades in the field of sustainable production of energy and chemicals. This enzyme is capable of accelerating the cellulose breakdown, a critical process in the production of bioenergy and biochemicals. This discovery, published in the journal Nature, was led by researchers from CNPEM (Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, in Campinas) in a partnership with researchers from INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, at Aix Marseille University) and Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
This enzyme was identified from the genetic material of a microbial community found in biomass residues collected in Brazilian soils. Its novel mechanism of action, combined with the ability to generate its own co-substrate, makes it a powerful tool for plant biomass deconstruction.
“This discovery changes the paradigm of cellulose degradation in nature and has the potential to revolutionize biorefineries”, says CNPEM researcher Mario Murakami, responsible for leading the studies. “With CelOCE, we can envision new routes for bioenergy, biochemicals and biomaterials production from plant biomass, contributing to a bio-based, low-carbon and circular economy.”
CelOCE (Cellulose Oxidative Cleaving Enzyme) improves efficiency in breaking down biomass into glucose, an essential step to convert this raw material into bioenergy and biochemicals. This research spanned from bioprospection in nature to an industrially relevant scale, with validation at the CNPEM pilot plant.
Data under industrial conditions have shown that, when used together with enzymes already used in the industry, CelOCE increased the amount of glucose released by up to 21% from agro-industrial residues. This means higher productivity and less waste in the industrial process.
According to ANP (Brazilian National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) data, Brazil produced 43 billion ethanol liters in 2023. With this discovery, production can increase by billions of liters, using agro-industrial residues such as sugarcane bagasse, corn straw, wood and other crops, without needing to expand planting areas. However, the exact volume of this increase cannot yet be determined, as it depends on the amount of residues that will be used for ethanol production.
The research was carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from CNPEM and international institutions from countries such as France and Denmark. According to CNPEM’s General Director, Antonio José Roque da Silva, the combination of advanced techniques available at the Center, including X-ray crystallography at Sirius, Brazil’s particle accelerator, and genetic engineering with CRISPR-Cas9, was essential to unravel CelOCE’s unprecedented mechanism. “This work exemplifies the potential opened up by the integration and synergy between CNPEM’s different scientific competencies”, highlights the institution’s General Director.
Read more on CNPEM website
