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S.D. Company Key Player in New Bioenergy Research Centers

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding three new bio-energy research centers. The goal is to come up with economical ways to use plant-based fuels as an alternative to gasoline. As KPBS Reporter Ed

S.D. Company Key Player in New Bioenergy Research Centers

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding three new bio-energy research centers. The goal is to come up with economical ways to use plant-based fuels as an alternative to gasoline. As KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce tells us, one San Diego company is a key player in the process.

The San Diego Company is Verenium Corporation . If the name doesn't sound familiar that's because it used to be called Diversa Corp until a recent merger. But the research work continues in San Diego. Dan Robertson is with the company's biofuels research and development division. He says the company develops and discovers ways to break down agricultural waste and plants - or biomass - by using enzymes.

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Robertson: We go out into the environment, places like for example termite guts. Termites are a great little biotope for breaking down cellulosic biomass into small molecules and fermentable molecules."

He says company researchers found that genes from the termite guts break down the biomass. Extracting those fermentable sugars is a step in the creation of biofuels. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

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