The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted US Patent No.  8,304,212 entitled “Methods and compositions for degradation of lignocellulosic material” to Dyadic International, Inc., a global biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of enzymes and other proteins .

The inventions embodied by this patent relate to methods and compositions for using enzyme mixtures to convert plant biomass into fermentable sugars for the production of useful products. The inventions also relate to novel combinations of enzymes including those that provide a synergistic release of sugars from plant biomass.

Dyadic’s president and CEO, Mark Emalfarb, stated, “In developing and selling industrial enzymes, our customers and partners not only benefit from Dyadic’s patented C1 platform technology but also from Dyadic’s fungal strains and technologies based on the Trichoderma fungal organism. Dyadic uses these strains to produce specialty enzymes that can be used  for a variety of applications in such fields as animal health and nutrition,  biofuels and bio-based chemicals. As with our growing portfolio of patents covering the C1 technology, this patent will provide Dyadic, its customers and licensees with additional protection for our Trichoderma-based enzyme mixtures.”

The patent also specifically describes methods of increasing the yield of fermentable sugars from fermentation of Distillers Dried Grains (DDGs) using enzyme mixtures comprising glucoamylase, betaglucosidase and  alpha-arabinofuranosidase. DDGs are obtained after the fermentation of the starch derived from a number of grains including corn, wheat, barley, oats, rice and rye and have a long history of being fed to livestock. DDGs are also a byproduct of ethanol production which creates synergies in using enzymes for both biofuels and animal feed applications. The issued claims  specifically cover Trichoderma-based enzyme mixtures which significantly and unexpectedly increase the yield of fermentable sugars from DDGs.

This patent is the twelfth US patent issued to Dyadic adding to its portfolio of 58 international patents, 38 pending international and 13 pending US patent applications which cover various features of Dyadic’s proprietary technologies.