Increasing concerns about dependence on fossil fuels has generated research and development of renewable fuels, such as ethanol. Ethanol can be produced from grains (for example, corn) or from plant biomass (tree chips and sawdust, composted food waste, or paper products). The production of ethanol is an industrial application of fermentation studied in introductory biology laboratories. A) Using information from your laboratory experiments, propose the components necessary for converting corn to ethanol (consider reactants, products, and environmental conditions). B) Corn plants store energy as starch, which cannot enter the fermentation pathway directly. Based on your knowledge of the molecular structure of starch, suggest additional components necessary to convert starch to simple sugars.
