Making sugar and protein from trash
Mutant strains of the fungus Trichoderma viride, capable of producing two to four times the celluloses the parent strain produces, have been developed over the past 20 years. As an outgrowth of the U.S. Army's attempt to overcome the South Pacific fungus' destructive properties on anything that contained cellulose, mountains of trash may be converted to rich chemicals or glucose. A process used in the U.K. to upgrade wastes into animal feed with selected microorganisms is also described. (1 diagram, 1 photo)