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Microbe produces biofuel from biomass
Berkeley, Calif. (UPI) Jan 28, 2009 U.S. scientists say they have developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel directly from biomass. Scientists led by Jay Keasling from the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint BioEnergy Institute said using synthetic biology they engineered a strain of Escherichia coli bacteria to produce biodiesel fuel and other chemicals derived from fatty acids. "The fact that our microbes can produce a diesel fuel directly from biomass with no additional chemical modifications is exciting and important," Keasling said. "Given that the costs of recovering biodiesel are nowhere near the costs required to distill ethanol, we believe our results can significantly contribute to the ultimate goal of producing scalable and cost effective advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals." The scientists said they are now working on maximizing the efficiency and the speed by which their engineered strain of E. coli can directly convert biomass into biodiesel. They said they are also looking into ways of maximizing the total amount of biodiesel that can be produced from a single fermentation. The study is reported in the journal Nature.
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