SubscribeWhile ethanol is today’s major biofuel, researchers aim to produce fuels more like gasoline. Butanol is the primary candidate, now produced primarily by Clostridium bacteria. UC Berkeley chemist Michelle Chang has transplanted the enzyme pathway from Clostridium into E. coli and gotten the bacteria to churn out 10 times more n-butanol than competing microbes, close to the level needed for industrial scale production.
Tag: biofuel
Turning bacteria into butanol biofuel factories
March 1, 2011:
The key to biofuel’s carbon footprint? Location, location, location
February 3, 2012:
Determining the climate impact of using grass to make cellulosic ethanol depends on how and where it’s grown, processed and transported, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters. Key factors affecting the greenhouse-gas emissions of cellulosic ethanol production were the amount of soil carbon emitted or stored during growth of the grass, and greenhouse-gas offset credits for electricity exported to the grid by biorefineries, said the authors, who are UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers at the Energy Biosciences Institute.
Modified corn genes may improve biofuel efficiency
October 14, 2011:
Modified corn genes have the potential to make switch grass a much more efficient biofuel, according to new research by a team led by George Chuck of Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. The study was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Boosting yeast’s ability to make alcohol
January 3, 2011:
University of Illinois, UC Berkeley and LBNL researchers have boosted yeast’s ability to ferment the sugar xylose as well as glucose, enabling more efficient production of ethanol fuel from corn or other plant material.
Researchers expand yeast’s sugary diet to include plant fiber
September 9, 2010:
Yeast cells don’t normally eat complex sugars or carbohydrates, only simple sugars like glucose and sucrose. UC Berkeley’s Jamie Cate and colleagues have now added genes to yeast that allow it to eat more complex sugars, called cellodextrins. These yeast could find use in the biofuels industry, which hopes to use cellulosic plant fibers to make alcohol.
