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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Making microbes produce biofuels The footage of oil that continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico is a stark reminder that the United States' reliance on liquid fuel has consequences. A substantial portion of this fuel powers vehicles: In 2008, 97 percent of energy consumed for transportation in the U.S. was supplied by liquid fuel—much of which was made from oil imported from foreign countries. Photosynthetic plant and algae-derived biofuels are additional sources of fuel (think ethanol and biodiesel) but today's technologies are less than 1 percent efficient at converting sunlight into energy we can use. Organisms use several other ways besides photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into energy, but so far these have remained relatively unexplored for their biofuel potential. Recently, the Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) awarded $40 million dollars to 13 projects researching alternative approaches to making fuel out of existing and synthetic organisms. Each grant will last three years. The programs explore options for coaxing organisms to make energy-dense liquid fuel, including the design of metabolic pathways not found in nature. In theory, these approaches "could be 10 times more efficient" than the technologies used today to produce liquid biofuel, according to ARPA-E's website. Here's a look at the big money being invested on a variety of projects. $6,000,000 to make fuel from E. coli Official Name: Engineering E. coli as an Electrofuels Chassis for Iso-octane Production Lead Organization: Ginkgo BioWorks Organism: E. coli Project Goal: Engineer E. coli to convert carbon dioxide and electrical energy into ingredients for iso-octane, a fuel that can be applied to existing fuel infrastructure for U.S. transportation. $6,000,000 to create biodiesel from hydrogen Official Name: Novel Biological Conversion of Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide Directly into biodiesel Lead Organization: OPX Biotechnologies Inc. Organism: Cupriavidus necator Project Goal: Develop a new, genetically engineered micro-organism that can produce biodiesel from hydrogen and carbon dioxide. $4,194,125 to devise fuel cells made from bacteria Official Name: Engineering a Bacterial Reverse Fuel Cell Lead Organization: Harvard Medical School–Wyss Institute Organism: N/A Project Goal: Engineer a bacterium that can absorb electrical current and turn it into octanol. $4,000,000 to turn electricity into gasoline Official Name: Electro-Autotrophic Synthesis of Higher Alcohols Lead Organization: University of California–Los Angeles Organism: N/A Project Goal: Genetically engineer micro-organisms to use electricity instead of sunlight to make a high-octane gasoline substitute. $3,977,349 to extract butanol from carbon dioxide, oxygen and hydrogen Official Name: Bioconversion of Carbon Dioxide to Biofuels by Facultatively Autotrophic Hydrogen Bacteria Lead Organization: Ohio State University Organism: Hydrogen Bacteria Project Goals: Develop genetically modified bacteria that use carbon dioxide, oxygen and hydrogen to produce butanol. Also, build an industrially scalable bioreactor and a new way to recover butanol from the reactor. $3,948,493 to use soil to make jet fuel Official Name: Development of an Integrated Microbial-ElectroCatalytic (MEC) System for Liquid Biofuel Production from CO2 Lead Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Organism: Ralstonia eutropha Project Goals: Develop a combined microbial and electrochemical catalytic system that converts hydrogen and carbon dioxide into butanol, and find a chemical method to convert butanol into jet fuel. $3,195,563 to use a microbial tag team to make biodiesel Official Name: Bioprocess and Microbe Engineering for Total Carbon Utilization in Biofuel Production Lead Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Organism: Anaerobic and aerobic microbes. Project Goal: Develop a process that will use an anaerobic—able to live without Oxygen—microbe to produce an organic compound that a second aerobic microbe can convert to oil that can be used to make biodiesel. $2,729,976 to use high-temperature-loving microbes to make fuel from CO2 Official Name: Hydrogen-Dependent Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Liquid Electrofuels by Extremely Thermophilic Archaea Lead Organization: North Carolina State University Organism: Archaea Project Goal: Using microbes that live in extremely high-temperature environments, develop a new process that converts carbon dioxide into biofuel precursors. $2,342, 602 to get fuel from CO2 by means of microbial electrolysis Official Name: Electroalcoholgenesis: Bioelectrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Butanol Lead Organization: Medical University of South Carolina Organism: N/A Project Goal: Develop an electrolysis cell that will employ microbes that can use electricity to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol and butanol. $1,771,404 to make butanol from soil bacteria Official Name: Engineering Ralstonia eutropha for Production of Isobutanol (IBT) Motor Fuel From Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen & Oxygen Lead Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Organism: Ralstonia eutropha Project Goal: Engineer Ralstonia eutropha to make butanol. $1,500,000 to extract gasoline from modified hydrogen-consuming bacteria Official Name: Development of Rhodobacter as a Versatile Microbial Platform for Fuels Production Lead Organization: Penn State University Organism: Rhodobacter Project Goal: Insert genes from oil-producing algae into Rhodobacter, a hydrogen-consuming bacteria, so it can use electricity to make gasoline. $1,000,000 to improve existing electrofuel technology Official Name: Electrofuels via Direct Electron Transfer from Electrodes to Microbes Lead Organization: University of Massachusetts–Amherst Organism: N/A Project Goal: Increase efficiency of microorganisms that are already capable of making biofuel. $543,394 to get butanol from reverse microbial fuel cell Official Name: Biofuels from CO2 Using Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria in a Reverse Microbial Fuel Cell Lead Organization: Columbia University Organism: N. europaea Project Goal: Genetically modify N. europaea to use ammonia to make butanol.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
These microbes have rights! We cannot force them to produce biofuels! Tyranny!!!!
Lead Organization: Ginkgo BioWorks Organism: E. coli Project Goal: Engineer E. coli to convert carbon dioxide and electrical energy into ingredients for iso-octane, a fuel that can be applied to existing fuel infrastructure for U.S. transportation. E. coli? Why poisonous E. coli?
They are being oppressed!!! Free the E. coli!
#4. To: F.A. Hayek Fan (#3)
No. Lock them up in a dungeon with a dragon and throw the key away.
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