And another claim of replacing fossil fuels comes up, joning (inter
alia) "anything into oil" [1] and "pigoline" [2]. Anyone have more details?
Udhay
[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/silk-list/message/8305
[2] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/silk-list/message/17606
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http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/19128/
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Making Gasoline from Bacteria
A biotech startup describes how it will coax petroleum-like fuels
from engineered microbes within three to five years.
By Neil Savage
The biofuel of the future could well be gasoline. That's the hope of
one biotech startup that on Monday described for the first time how
it is coaxing bacteria into producing hydrocarbons that could be
processed into fuels like those made from petroleum.
LS9, a company based in San Carlos, CA, and founded by geneticist
George Church, of Harvard Medical School, and plant biologist Chris
Somerville, of Stanford University, had previously said that it was
working on what it calls "renewable petroleum." But at a Society for
Industrial Microbiology conference on Monday, the company began
speaking more openly about what it has accomplished: it has
genetically engineered various bacteria, including E. coli, to
custom-produce hydrocarbon chains.
To do this, the company is employing tools from the field of
synthetic biology to modify the genetic pathways that bacteria,
plants, and animals use to make fatty acids, one of the main ways
that organisms store energy. Fatty acids are chains of carbon and
hydrogen atoms strung together in a particular arrangement, with a
carboxylic acid group made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen attached
at one end. Take away the acid, and you're left with a hydrocarbon
that can be made into fuel.
"I am very impressed with what they're doing," says James Collins,
codirector of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology at Boston
University. He calls the company's use of synthetic biology and
systems biology to engineer hydrocarbon-producing bacteria "cutting edge."
In some cases, LS9's researchers used standard recombinant DNA
techniques to insert genes into the microbes. In other cases, they
redesigned known genes with a computer and synthesized them. The
resulting modified bacteria make and excrete hydrocarbon molecules
that are the length and molecular structure the company desires.
Stephen del Cardayre, a biochemist and LS9's vice president for
research and development, says the company can make hundreds of
different hydrocarbon molecules. The process can yield crude oil
without the contaminating sulfur that much petroleum out of the
ground contains. The crude, in turn, would go to a standard refinery
to be processed into automotive fuel, jet fuel, diesel fuel, or any
other petroleum product that someone wanted to make.
Next year LS9 will build a pilot plant in California to test and
perfect the process, and the company hopes to be selling improved
biodiesel and providing synthetic biocrudes to refineries for further
processing within three to five years. (See "Building Better Biofuels.")
But LS9 isn't the only company in this game. Amyris Biotechnologies,
of Emeryville, CA, is also using genes from plants and animals to
make microbes produce designer fuels. Neil Renninger, senior vice
president of development and one of the company's cofounders, says
that Amyris has also created bacteria capable of supplying renewable
hydrocarbon-based fuels. The main difference between the companies,
Renninger says, is that while LS9 is working on a biocrude that would
be processed in a refinery, Amyris is working on directly producing
fuels that would need little or no further processing.
Amyris is also working on a pilot production plant that it expects to
complete by the end of next year, and it also hopes to have
commercial products available within three or four years. (See "A
Better Biofuel.") Both companies say they want to further engineer
their bacteria to be more efficient, and they're working to optimize
the overall production process. "The potential for biofuels is huge,
and I think theirs [LS9's] is one possible solution," Renninger says.
Indeed, many technology approaches are needed, says Craig Venter,
cofounder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics, of Rockland, MD, which is
also applying biotechnology to fuel production. "We need a hundred, a
thousand solutions, not just one," he says. "I know at least a dozen
groups and labs trying to make biofuels from bacteria with sugar."
Venter's company is also working on engineering microbes to produce
fuel. The company recently received a large investment from the oil
giant BP to study the microbes that live on underground oil supplies;
the idea is to see if the microbes can be engineered to provide
cleaner fuel. Another project aims to tinker with the genome of palm
trees--the most productive source of oil for biodiesel--to make them
a less environmentally damaging crop.
LS9's current work uses sugar derived from corn kernels as the food
source for the bacteria--the same source used by ethanol-producing
yeast. To produce greater volumes of fuel, and to not have energy
competing with food, both approaches will need to use cellulosic
biomass, such as switchgrass, as the feedstock. Del Cardayre
estimates that cellulosic biomass could produce about 2,000 gallons
of renewable petroleum per acre.
Producing hydrocarbon fuels is more efficient than producing ethanol,
del Cardayre adds, because the former packs about 30 percent more
energy per gallon. And it takes less energy to produce, too. The
ethanol produced by yeast needs to be distilled to remove the water,
so ethanol production requires 65 percent more energy than
hydrocarbon production does.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of replacing 30 percent
of current petroleum use with fuels from renewable biological sources
by 2030, and del Cardayre says he feels that's easily achievable.
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
