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Florida Center For Renewable Chemicals And Fuels

Florida Center For Renewable Chemicals And Fuels

THE UF/IFAS RESEARCH ON RENEWABLE CHEMICALS AND FUELS

FCRC's home is at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, 1355 Museum Drive, Gainesville, FL 32611. FCRC has access to resources to conduct research in metabolic engineering, enzyme development, bioenergy crop improvement, small-scale biomass processing, and computational biology.

We currently have 20 participating faculty members. Grants and contracts awarded to the faculty members support graduate students, post-docs, research faculty, technical staff, part-time undergraduate assistants, and research interns.

RESEARCH PROJECTS COORDINATED BY THE CENTER FOCUS ON THESE MAJOR AREAS:

  1. Bioenergy Crop Improvement – Use of plant breeding and transgenic approaches to improve biomass yield, sugar yield, bioprocessing characteristics, disease resistance, water and nitrogen use efficiency
  2. Depolymerization of Cellulose and Hemicellulose - development of microbial enzymes systems to solubilize the carbohydrate polymers (cellulose and hemicellulose) in the cell wall of plants into sugars that can serve as inexpensive renewable source for conversion into fuels and chemicals
  3. Microbial Metabolic Engineering - development of biocatalysts for the production of fuel ethanol and other chemicals from renewable plant biomass
  4. Environmental Microbiology - development of processes and organisms to remove biological and chemical hazards in contaminated soil and water.
  5. Comparative Genomics and Experimental Evolution - efficient use of genomic information to identify new enzymes and pathways for biocatalyst development