14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers from the University of Texas report that they have developed a method through which large amounts of biofuel can be produced at relatively cheap prices. By using a cyanobacteria, they have been able to produce cellulose that can be easily turned into ethanol and other biofuels. Alternatively, the microbe secretes glucose and sucrose, which may also be used to produce ethanol fuel.
"The cyanobacterium is potentially a very inexpensive source for sugars to use for ethanol and designer fuels," says Dr David Nobles Jr. from the University of Texas' Section of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. The bacteria created by Dr Nobles along with Professor R. Malcolm Brown Jr. can grow in non-agricultural lands using salty water unsuitable for human or crops consumption.
The new cyanobacteria was grown from a 'vinegar' bacterium known as Acetobacter xylinum, a cellulose producing non-photosynthetic bacteria, by altering its cellulose-making genes. The cellulose is produced into a gel-like form and can be easily broken into sugars such as glucose. "The problem with cellulose harvested from plants is that it's difficult to break down because it's high crystalline and mixed with lignins for structure and other compounds," explains Nobles.
"The huge expense in making cellulosic ethanol and biofuels is in using enzymes and mechanical methods to break cellulose down. Using the cyanobacteria escapes these expensive processes," he said. Ethanol is usually extracted from biomass such as wood, corn and sugarcane, however with the use of the cyanobacteria, the necessary land required to produce the biomass could be drastically reduced, the pressure on forests as well.
"The pressure is on all these corn farmers to produce corn for non-food sources. That same demand, for sucrose, is now being put on Brazil to open of the Amazon rainforest to produce more sugarcane for our growing energy needs. We don't want to do that. You'll never get the forests back," says Brown.
According to their estimates, in order to produce the amount of biofuel required to power the whole US transportation system, there would be required an area of agricultural land equal to 2,123,800 kilometers. With the help of cyanobacteria and the current production levels, the same amount of ethanol would be produced on half that surface area, while bioreactors could further enhance the productivity by nearly 17 times.
"There will be many avenues to become completely energy independent, and we want to be part of the overall effort. Petroleum is a precious commodity. We should be using it to make usedful products, not just burning it and turning it into carbon dioxide," said Brown.
