Solar-Powered Bacteria Convert Carbon Dioxide Into Biofuel
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By on November 16th, 2009 |
A team of U.S. researchers have developed a new way to generate alternative fuel from bacteria. They have genetically modified bacteria to eat CO2 and produce isobutyraldehyde, which can further be used to produce isobutanol.
What is amazing at their experiment is that the modified bacteria are powered by sunlight, being highly efficient in the conversion process. So, in the future the researchers want to set up colonies near to industrial plants. This would allow greenhouse gases to be recycled into useful chemical feedstock, supplying several hydrocarbons that are typically obtained from petroleum.
Scientists found that microalgae and cyanobacteria consume CO2 for a long time but none generate any liquid molecules that can easily be used as fuel. “Here, we were successful in engineering CO2-eating bacteria to produce isobutyraldehyde very efficiently,” says James Liao, who led the work at the University of California, Los Angeles, US. “Our process is around 10 times faster than hydrogen production and about 100 times faster than genetically engineered ethanol production.” Liao said that the process will be not commercialized soon, because further research needs to be done.
[Source: RSC]
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Nov 18th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Coming up with such advanced and genuine solution to world’s energy is only one thing that this bacteria can do. If such bacteria can produce an organic fuel from CO2, then the world’s famine problem is vanished. If these type of engineered bacteria analyzed and understood to the final atom of DNA, then the same process that the bacteria uses could be used in the production of glucose molecule. Lucky is the one who will know how to create glucose from CO2 (CO2 Activation).