Dikaryon Biotechnologies

Dikaryon created a technology that makes ethanol production more efficient. The company’s innovation uses freeze-dried yeast beads that boost yields during the fermentation step.

The beads hold yeast cells that are encapsulated in a sodium alginate and calcium matrix. This permeable matrix provides nutrients to the ethanol while keeping the yeast cells from expanding.

Dikaryon’s technology, which is currently in the prototype stage, shows a 4.5 percent increase in ethanol production using batch reactors, and a five-fold increase or greater using continuously fed reactors.

The same technology could be used to increase the efficiency of other processes that use synthetic biology to manufacture products such as vaccines, insulin and more.