Review

The most stirring technology in future: Cellulase enzyme and biomass utilization

Xing-hua Li¹, Hua-jun Yang¹, Bhaskar Roy¹, Dan Wang¹, Wan-fu Yue¹, Li-jun Jiang¹, Enoch Y. Park² and Yun-gen Miao¹*.

¹Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemic Etiology and Immunological Prevention of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China.

²Laboratory of Biotechnology, Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka 422-8529, Japan.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: miaoyg@zju.edu.cn. Tel.: +86 571 86971659.

Accepted 3 March, 2009

In recent years, fundamental and applied researches on cellulase enzyme have not only generated significant scientific knowledge but also have revealed their enormous potential in biotechnology. Growing attention has been devoted to its bioconversion of biomass into fuel ethanol, considered the cleanest liquid fuel alternative to fossil fuels. Significant advances have been made towards the production and alteration technology of cellulase enzyme. This review simply introduces cellulose and cellulase enzyme, gives a broad overview of the current research status of cellulase enzyme, briefly refers to its applied fields, and lastly summarizes its promising prospects.

Key words: Cellulose, cellulase enzyme, fuel ethanol, biomass.