Biodiesel could be generated from E.coli, the nasty bacteria which causes stomach upsets.
A new study published by science journal Nature, suggests that by tweaking the bacteria’s genetics, the bacteria can be altered to ingest agricultural waste and secrete diesel as a waste product.
Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California developed a working prototype in which they changed the E.coli’s process of turning sugars into fatty acids. The scientists amplified and then re-routed E.coli’s process for producing large fatty-acid molecules, enabling them to convert precursor molecules directly into fuels and other chemicals.
The bacteria could help produce cheaper and greener biofuel by reducing the need for carbon-intensive mechanical processing of plant material to produce oil as fuel.
Lead researcher Jay Keasling said: “The fact that our microbes can produce a diesel fuel directly from biomass with no additional chemical modifications is exciting and important.Given that the costs of recovering biodiesel are nowhere near the costs required to distill ethanol, we believe our results can significantly contribute to the ultimate goal of producing scalable and cost effective advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals.”
There is still work to be done however before the technique could be considered for commercial use. Environmental and cost of production has yet to be assessed, but the team at LBNL are continuing their work to ascertain the use of this technique.
Explains Keasling: “Productivity, titer and efficient conversion of feedstock into fuelare the three most important factors for engineering microbes that can produce biofuels on an industrial scale,” Steen says. “There is still much more research to do before this process becomes commercially feasible.”
