Newspapers to fuel cars
news.discovery.comTU-103 is the first bacterial strain found in nature (not genetically engineered) to produce butanol directly from cellulose. It is also the only strain yet found that can grow in the presence of oxygen. Keeping bacterial fermentation chambers air tight makes other strains more expensive to work with.
Cellulose biofuels have advantages over ethanol from corn and sugar cane. It doesn’t compete for crop land, since cellulose containing plants can be grown on lands where other crops won’t grow.
Butanol is also superior to ethanol in several ways. It can be used without modifying automobile engines, and is less corrosive. Butanol also contains more energy than ethanol, so cars fueled by butanol won’t lose miles-per-gallon, as they do with ethanol and ethanol blends like E85.
Cars could run on recycled newspaper, scientists say
physorg.comTulane has applied for a patent for a method to produce the biofuel butanol from organic material, a process developed by associate professor David Mullin, right, postdoctoral fellow Harshad Velankar, center, and undergraduate student Hailee Rask. Credit: Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano
Here’s one way that old-fashioned newsprint beats the Internet. Tulane University scientists have discovered a novel bacterial strain, dubbed “TU-103,” that can use paper to produce butanol, a biofuel that can serve as a substitute for gasoline. They are currently experimenting with old editions of the Times Picayune, New Orleans’ venerable daily newspaper, with great success.
TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound.
“Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many,” said Harshad Velankar, a postdoctoral fellow in David Mullin’s lab in Tulane’s Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. “In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year.”
Mullin’s lab first identified TU-103 in animal droppings, cultivated it and developed a method for using it to produce butanol. A patent is pending on the process.
“Most important about this discovery is TU-103’s ability to produce butanol directly from cellulose,” explained Mullin.
He added that TU-103 is the only known butanol-producing clostridial strain that can grow and produce butanol in the presence of oxygen, which kills other butanol-producing bacteria. Having to produce butanol in an oxygen-free space increases the costs of production.
As a biofuel, butanol is superior to ethanol (commonly produced from corn sugar) because it can readily fuel existing motor vehicles without any modifications to the engine, can be transported through existing fuel pipelines, is less corrosive, and contains more energy than ethanol, which would improve mileage.
“This discovery could reduce the cost to produce bio-butanol,” said Mullin. “In addition to possible savings on the price per gallon, as a fuel, bio-butanol produced from cellulose would dramatically reduce carbon dioxide and smog emissions in comparison to gasoline, and have a positive impact on landfill waste.”
The issue with findings like this is scale: can a reliable and cost effective means of producing butanol at scale be found?
Butanol Touted as Gasoline of the Future
Scientists reported a discovery that could speed an emerging effort to replace ethanol in gasoline with a substantially better fuel additive called butanol, which some experts regard as “the gasoline of the future.” Their report on this discovery, which holds potential to reduce the costs of converting ethanol factories to production of butanol, came at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Duncan Wass explains that ethanol has become a leading biofuel — millions of gallons added to gasoline around the country each year — despite several disadvantages. Ethanol, for instance, has a lower energy content per gallon than gasoline, which can reduce fuel mileage. Ethanol also has a corrosive effect on car engines and can’t easily be used in amounts higher than 10-15 percent.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/butanol-touted-gasoline-future
Biofuels have hope after all!
good.isButanol-producing bacteria? Perhaps the only good reason to go digging through zebra shit.
Camex Surcharge Import Of Paper And N-Butanol ! http://newish.info/32799-camex-surcharge-import-of-paper-and-n-butanol
Genetically Engineered E. coli Produces Biofuel Replacement For Petroleum
Escherichia coli has been genetically engineered by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles to produce butanol: an alcohol like ethanol, that can directly replace our petroleum needs (unlike ethanol). Butanol is chemically better than ethanol as a biofuel for numerous reasons:
- Butanol has a higher octane number than ethanol (butanol contains more energy)
- Butanol is less corrosive than ethanol (butanol can be put in existing engines and infrastructure)
- Butanol is less soluble in water than ethanol (makes ethanol more difficult to separate from contaminated water supplies)
Previously butanol has been produced through two pathways: ABE (acetone, butanol, ethanol) fermentation or petrochemical cracking. ABE fermentation is very inefficient and petrochemical cracking requires non -renewable crude oil. Therefore the production of butanol needed to be refined.
The refined, efficient process of butanol production involves genetically engineered E. coli. Some of E. coli’s keto acid metabolites have been diverted from amino acid synthesis to butanol production through the insertion of two non-native genes (genes from other species) and deletion of other certain genes. The inserted genes code for an enzyme that converts some of the organism’s keto acids to aldehydes and another enzyme that converts the aldehydes to butanol. The deleted genes increased the amount of keto acids to be converted.
Butanol producing E. coli can be still be improved upon further. The organisms need to be genetically engineered to produce butanol at a faster rate and their tolerance of butanol in the substrate must be raised, if butanol is to be commercially competitive with ethanol.
Full Article
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/20073/page1/
Related Links
http://www.gevo.com/index.php
http://www.butanol.com/
nom
not nom; i’ve been sick all day and it’s making me feel nauseous
Rhodia And Cobalt Will Produce Butanol From Sugar Cane ! http://newish.info/103113-rhodia-and-cobalt-will-produce-butanol-from-sugar-cane
srsly, you don’t even understand. it stopped now thank god omgawks yo
WHY i dared to ask
As silly as it sounds, I feel like this might jinx it so I’m knocking on wood but pretty much everything in my life is going well right now! School this semester is starting out well and I’m not struggling too much as a RA and I’m socializing and making new friends and eating decently and spending more of my time with people who legitimately want to be around me and show me that they do. Before this, I was spending way too much time around people who didn’t enjoy my company as much as I enjoyed theirs and it’s so so nice to finally feel desired/appreciated for a change.
i'm too ▼ to be "in" :((((((((((
it’s because awkward is in right now
