We are creating better, more sustainable chemicals and enzymes, often using molecular ‘machines’ or factories that can do innovative things.
‘Neobiochemistry’ is a new term used to talk about completely new enzymes and metabolic pathways that can replace industrial chemicals and industrial processes.
Project examples
Biosensor for rare earth elements
A biosensor that can detect rare earth elements used in electronics, medicine, energy storage and clean energy generation is being developed by a team within the Centre’s two Queensland nodes.
And it’s hoped the biosensor will form the basis of new, sustainable rare earth element (REE) extraction and recycling technologies.
Read MoreSweetener for the sugar industry
Nothing says northern Australia like fields of lush, waving sugar cane. Yet only a third of the tropical harvest becomes valuable sugar products. The rest is considered waste. That 30 percent accounts for 95 percent of the A$2 billion a year revenue. The 70 percent of left-over wood and pulp – known as bagasse – currently has little economic value. But a team from the Centre’s Queensland University of Technology node aims to change that. Francisco Peralta is part of a team hoping to produce higher-value commercial products using bagasse and a yeast called Yarrowia lipolytica.
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