Eideard

Scientists have found that it is possible to alter the genetic makeup of the bacterium E. coli to and induce it to produce biodiesel. Most microbes, including E. coli, make and process fatty acids, one of the ingredients of biodiesel; however, what they do with it often leaves something to be desired when it comes to fuel production. By modifying E. coli, scientists are able to make it produce fatty esters, which are the primary components of biodiesel.

Engineering bacteria to do a scientist’s bidding is a good way to obtain desired materials, such as natural compounds for drugs, or in this case, fuels. Since E. coli is a well known and often-studied microorganism, and is able to produce fatty acids before any alteration, it is an excellent workhorse for synthetic biology…

The altered E. coli can receive various inputs, including partially processed material like glucose and ethanol, and produce fatty acid methyl esters, or biodiesel. The bacteria also produce some fatty alcohols, waxes, and simple sugars that may be harvested and used for other purposes. The authors of the paper argue that the process has advantages over corn ethanol and other plant oil-derived biodiesels, as its production doesn’t require the use of anything that could be a food source, which means no issues with higher prices or questionable land use practices.

There is no shortage of agri-business giants capable of supplying us with all the e.coli test materials we would ever need.

A company called Genomatica, based in San Diego, says that it can make the key ingredient in spandex from sugar, and do so at a cost that competes with current chemical processes, which use fossil fuels. It has developed genetically engineered E. coli bacteria that excrete a chemical called 1,4-butanediol, or BDO, which is used to make a number of products, including textiles, car parts, and pharmaceuticals.

The company announced that it has demonstrated a proprietary process that allows it to produce the BDO at greater than 99 percent purity, a technical milestone that clears the way for the one-ton-per-day demonstration plant that it plans to build next year. (Total worldwide production of BDO is about 1.5 million tons.) The company also reported increasing the productivity of the bacteria to a level that it says is near what’s needed to compete with petroleum and natural-gas-based processes.

Christophe Schilling, Genomatica’s CEO, says that its process will reduce energy use for making the chemical by about 30 percent. It will also decouple its cost from the cost of fossil fuels. He predicts that the company’s process will cost 25 percent less than conventional methods used to make BDO, provided the price of oil stays above $40 to $50 a barrel and the cost of sugar is about 10 to 12 cents a pound…

Pierce predicts that the next 15 years will see a significant shift toward using biological processes to make chemical intermediates, as fossil fuels become more expensive. “Historically, petroleum has been cheaper [than sugar]–that’s why we’ve had a petroleum age,” he says. “It’s been the place everyone goes to get cheap raw materials. We’re in a period of transition now, where it’s becoming more and more frequent that it’s cheaper to do a biological process.”

Agreed. I have a couple of old acquaintances who are molecular biologists and they are at the stage where they refuse to retire – because they’re having so much fun. Years of theory and experiment are finally coming together to produce more for humanity than they ever could have hoped for.