Bacteria Into Butanol Biofuel Factories | Alternative Energy HQ. University of California, Berkeley, chemists have engineered bacteria to churn out a gasoline-like biofuel at about 10 times the rate of competing microbes, a breakthrough that could soon provide an affordable and “green” transportation fuel. The advance is reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology by Michelle C. Y. Chang, assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, graduate student Brooks B. Bond-Watts and recent UC Berkeley graduate Robert J. Various species of the Clostridium bacteria naturally produce a chemical called n-butanol (normal butanol) that has been proposed as a substitute for diesel oil and gasoline.
While these techniques have produced promising genetically altered E. coli bacteria and yeast, n-butanol production has been limited to little more than half a gram per liter, far below the amounts needed for affordable production. “We are in a host that is easier to work with, and we have a chance to make it even better,” Chang said. Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' to grow dramatically due to federal biofuel mandate. Every year copious amounts of fertilizer and nutrient-rich sentiment dump into the Gulf of Mexico from the mouth of the Mississippi River, feeding massive algae blooms so large that they starve the ocean of oxygen. These oxygen-depleted waters, which last year grew to the size of Massachusetts, form a vast "dead zone" completely devoid of all marine life. Now a new study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, says the problem stands to get far worse if the U.S. follows through on its current federally-mandated efforts to increase annual biofuel production to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
The federal mandate, which was passed by Congress in 2007 in an effort to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil, set targets for the U.S. to blend 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year into the U.S. fuel supply, up from the 11.1 billion gallons projected to be blended this year. That would increase biofuels' share of the liquid-fuel mix to roughly 16% from 5%, based on U.S. Oil Investment: Our 2008 Quote Comes True | Riggs Eckelberry's New Energy. Sapphire Energy, Inc. Iran Creates Biofuel from Algae. A salt lake in Iran has given rise to a new species of algae for biofuel. This is the large salt lake “Urmia”.
Are the Iranians looking for biofuel alternatives such as algae to dangerous and polluting nuclear power? Iran Daily reports that researchers at Iran’s Shiraz University have succeeded to make biofuel from algae, a new kind of algae for biofuel Science Direct reports. Either the threat of increased international sanctions is finally convincing the Iranians that so much emphasis in “going nuclear” is not good for them in the long run. The Iranian project leader Dr. The production of biofuels from algae and other sources is the only resource humans hope to have in future. Using algae as a biofuel doesn’t seem compatible with the Islamic Republic right now, vociferous for its nuclear ambitions. But the Iranian algae biofuel project is no joke: it’s being carried our by researchers at Teheran’s Shiraz University who succeeded in producing green fuel from the algae Chlamydomonas. Sapphire Energy 2010 Corporate Video.
BP Plans $1B Wind, biofuel Investments For 2011.