(TDB) - Wine just got even better for you as Australian researchers have developed a technique for converting winery waste into compounds that could have potential value as biofuels or medicines.

Avinash Karpe, a PhD student at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, has worked out how to turn wine waste into compounds that can be used to create ethanol and other biofuels by using fungi to break it down.

According to Karpe: “Various fungi are known to degrade this waste by generating an array of enzymes.”

“These enzymes convert the waste to soluble sugars which can then be converted into other products,” said Karpe.

As part of his PhD research, Karpe had been investigating how to break down this woody material composed of cellulose, pectins and lignins into simpler compounds that can be used to create other things such as ethanol or other biofuels.

He performed a series of experiments to develop the best procedure for degrading winery biomass waste and discovered that a 30-minute heat activated pretreatment aided the breakdown of these biomolecules.