With the recent instigations of energy crisis, and encouragement from the contemporary spurt of technological innovations especially in the field of bio-fuels, U.S. Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) researchers have achieved an all important solution to meet our future fuel demands. They have succeeded in generating isobutanol directly from the cellulosic plant matter using bacteria. Being a higher grade alcohol, isobutanol has almost a similar heat value as petrol, and hence it can be used as petrol’s replacement for combustion in vehicular engines.
In a such a process of acquiring bio-fuel from biomass, it generally involves various intermittent and complex steps, and so the project could become costly in the long run. But the researchers at BESC have conveniently managed to achieve a single-step process by developing a strain of Clostridium cellulolyticum, a native cellulose-degrading microbe that could produce isobutanol directly from cellulose matter.
Yongchao Li of Oak Ridge National Laboratory said:
In nature, no microorganisms have been identified that possess all of the characteristics necessary for the ideal consolidated bioprocessing strain, so we knew we had to genetically engineer a strain for this purpose.
The successful procedure has already attracted the attention of many alternative fuel lobbyists, especially in view of the relatively low cost involved because of the cheap raw materials used. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited the BESC to congratulate the research team and mentioned:
Today’s announcement is yet another sign of the rapid progress we are making in developing the next generation of biofuels that can help reduce our oil dependence. This is a perfect example of the promising opportunity we have to create a major new industry – one based on bio-material such as wheat and rice straw, corn stover, lumber wastes, and plants specifically developed for bio-fuel production that require far less fertilizer and other energy inputs.
Source: GizMag
