New Artificial Enzyme Shows Potential for New Renewable Energy Source

A new artificial enzyme has demonstrated it can chew through lignin, the tough polymer that helps woody plants maintain their structure. Lignin also stores tremendous potential for renewable energy and materials.

Reporting today (May 31, 2022) in the journal Nature Communications, a team of researchers from Washington State University and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) demonstrated that their artificial enzyme succeeded in digesting lignin, which has stubbornly resisted previous attempts to develop it into an economically useful energy source.

Lignin, which is the second most abundant renewable carbon source on Earth, mostly goes to waste as a fuel source. When wood is burned for cooking, lignin byproducts help impart that smoky flavor to foods. But burning releases all that carbon into the atmosphere instead of capturing it for other uses.