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Seaweed study fuels bioenergy enthusiasm
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337755/title/Seaweed_study_fuels_bioenergy_enthusiasm[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]Seaweed study fuels bioenergy enthusiasm[/font]
[font size=4]Engineered E. coli can convert cell wall component into ethanol[/font]
By Rachel Ehrenberg
Web edition : Thursday, January 19th, 2012
[font size=3]Seaweed has long made biofuel prospectors drool, but they hadn’t figured out how to efficiently chew through the stuff — until now. Researchers have engineered a bacterium that can break down and digest seaweed’s gummy cell walls to yield ethanol and other useful compounds. If scientists can make the process work at larger scales, seaweed could soon be a serious contender as a source of renewable fuel.
…
Then the team scoured scientific literature and databases for a microbe with serious alginate-digesting machinery. They hit upon the marine microbe Vibrio splendidus, and took a hefty chunk of the Vibrio DNA for use in the E. coli. When the team fed alginate to their engineered E. coli, the microbes pumped out ethanol, the researchers report in the Jan. 20 Science. The system yields 80 percent of the theoretical maximum amount of ethanol for a given amount of biomass, the scientists noted, and with further tweaking will probably be even more efficient.
Part of the beauty of the system is its flexibility, says Yoshikuni. Because the alginate-degrading enzyme is released into the environment, initial breakdown products can easily be harvested for creating useful compounds such as precursors to nylon or plastics. And when E. coli consume the broken-down alginate the bacteria generate a lot of pyruvate, a chemical intermediate useful for making fuels such as butanol or biodiesel.
Seaweed is already harvested at commercial scale in several countries for other uses, and Bio Architecture Lab is working on a pilot plant in Chile to convert seaweed into fuel, says company CEO Daniel Trunfio. Also, any seaweed will do, he notes. “We like to say we’re seaweed agnostic — we can process any brown algae.”[/font][/font]
[font size=4]Engineered E. coli can convert cell wall component into ethanol[/font]
By Rachel Ehrenberg
Web edition : Thursday, January 19th, 2012
[font size=3]Seaweed has long made biofuel prospectors drool, but they hadn’t figured out how to efficiently chew through the stuff — until now. Researchers have engineered a bacterium that can break down and digest seaweed’s gummy cell walls to yield ethanol and other useful compounds. If scientists can make the process work at larger scales, seaweed could soon be a serious contender as a source of renewable fuel.
…
Then the team scoured scientific literature and databases for a microbe with serious alginate-digesting machinery. They hit upon the marine microbe Vibrio splendidus, and took a hefty chunk of the Vibrio DNA for use in the E. coli. When the team fed alginate to their engineered E. coli, the microbes pumped out ethanol, the researchers report in the Jan. 20 Science. The system yields 80 percent of the theoretical maximum amount of ethanol for a given amount of biomass, the scientists noted, and with further tweaking will probably be even more efficient.
Part of the beauty of the system is its flexibility, says Yoshikuni. Because the alginate-degrading enzyme is released into the environment, initial breakdown products can easily be harvested for creating useful compounds such as precursors to nylon or plastics. And when E. coli consume the broken-down alginate the bacteria generate a lot of pyruvate, a chemical intermediate useful for making fuels such as butanol or biodiesel.
Seaweed is already harvested at commercial scale in several countries for other uses, and Bio Architecture Lab is working on a pilot plant in Chile to convert seaweed into fuel, says company CEO Daniel Trunfio. Also, any seaweed will do, he notes. “We like to say we’re seaweed agnostic — we can process any brown algae.”[/font][/font]
