HOUSTON (Feb. 28, 2013) "Green" chemistry developed at Rice University is at the center of a new government effort to turn plant waste into fatty acids, and then into fuel.
The Rice lab of bioengineer Ka-Yiu San is part of a recently announced $25 million United States Department of Agriculture project to develop a new generation of renewable energy and bio-based products from switchgrass and forestry residues and from a new hybrid of sorghum being developed at Texas A&M University.
Patent-pending fermentation processes created by San and his colleagues use genetically modified E. coli bacteria to produce fatty acids from hydrolysates. The sugary, carbon-rich hydrolysate is extracted from cellulose, the tough, inedible part of plants that is usually thrown away. San said his lab already gets an 80-to-90 percent yield of fatty acids from model sugars and hopes to improve that over the next few years.
"Adding another 1 or 2 percent doesn't seem like much," said San, based at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative. "But when you're talking about making several million tons per year, it's huge."
The target products are synthetic diesel and lubricants, according to Ceramatec Inc., a Utah-based company that proposed the project and would produce hydrocarbons from fatty acids that could then be processed by petroleum refineries.
There are two ways to make fuel (from biomass)," said Mukund Karanjikar, innovation manager at Technology Holding LLC, which is administering the project. "You either make alcohols, or you make petroleum-like fuels that can go into current infrastructure. Our program is for infrastructure-compatible transportation fuels.
"There aren't many ways to go from sugars to a diesel-like compound," he said. "The best way is to make fatty acids from the sugars microbially, as many labs have tried to do. But the Rice University process is definitely the winner."
Postdoctoral
'/>"/>
| Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Genetically modified corn affects its symbiotic relationship with non-target soil organisms
2. Transplanted genetically-modified adipose cells offer potential therapy for liver diseases
3. Circadian rhythms can be modified for potential treatment of disorders
4. Leading evolutionary scientist to discuss how genome of bacteria has evolved
5. Study by UC Santa Barbara researchers suggests that bacteria communicate by touch
6. Team discovers how bacteria resist a Trojan horse antibiotic
7. From scourge to saint: E. coli bacteria becomes a factory - to make cheaper, faster pharmaceuticals
8. Bacterial shock to recapture essential phosphate
9. Disarming disease-causing bacteria
10. Study shows unified process of evolution in bacteria and sexual eukaryotes
11. Invisible helpers: How probiotic bacteria protect against inflammatory bowel diseases
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |