Dyadic Lays Siege to Sugar Market: Sugars from Biomass

The worldwide market for sugars (cane, beets, maize) may exceed $100 billion annually, perhaps half used for food and half used for fuel. But recent achievements by Dyadic International Inc. may change the calculus of the world sugar market in ways impossible to anticipate. Here is more information on Dyadic's new product:

Dyadic International, Inc., a global biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of enzyme and protein products for the bioenergy, industrial enzyme and biopharmaceutical industries, has introduced its most advanced biofuels enzyme, AlternaFuel CMAX. Dyadic says that AlternaFuel CMAX has proven to be effective in converting multiple forms of biomass into fermentable sugars.

Dyadic has developed an integrated technology platform to rapidly discover and express genes of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic origin, then efficiently and inexpensively manufacturing the products of those genes. The company uses a number of proprietary fungal strains to produce enzymes and other biomaterials, principally focused on a system for protein production based on the patented Chrysosporium lucknowense fungus, known as C1. Dyadic has recently completed its scale-up of AlternaFuel CMAX which was derived from Dyadic’s C1 platform technology. _GCC

There is no way of knowing whether Dyadic is "the guy" who will transform world sugar production by making the valuable substances cheaply out of agricultural and forestry waste. Someone will do it, sooner or later. When that happens, the entire economics of cane, beets, and maize will be transformed.

Even if the biomass sugars are not useful for food, the fermentable fuels market is quite likely to explode once the sugar feedstock achieves a relatively low and stable price point. When fed ample sugars of the proper type, microbes will work tirelessly -- producing valuable by-product 24 hours a day while multiplying exponentially.

There is no telling what cheap sugars will do to world markets. But those who continue to waste time (their own and others') fretting about "food vs fuels" will clearly be living in the past long before they are aware of the fact.