A team of engineers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) recently discovered that a naturally occurring bacterium, Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum TG57, isolated from waste generated after harvesting mushrooms, is capable of directly converting cellulose, a plant-based material, to biobutanol.
A research team led by Associate Professor He Jianzhong from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at NUS Faculty of Engineering first discovered the novel TG57 strain in 2015. They went on to culture the strain to examine its properties.
Assoc Prof He explained, "The production of biofuels using non-food feedstocks can improve sustainability and reduce costs greatly. In our study, we demonstrated a novel method of directly converting cellulose to biobutanol using the novel TG57 strain. This is a major breakthrough in metabolic engineering and exhibits a foundational milestone in sustainable and cost-effective production of renewable biofuels and chemicals."
[...] Moving forward, the research team will continue to optimise the performance of the TG57 strain, and further engineer it to enhance biobutanol ratio and yield using molecular genetic tools.
The team published the findings of the study in the scientific journal Science Advances on 23 March 2018.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Ayn Anonymous on Tuesday April 10 2018, @12:42AM (1 child)
This is real progress.
> ...further engineer it to enhance biobutanol ratio and yield using molecular genetic tools.
Let's hope these guys are not greedy and try to CRISP in some way to degrade the reproductive process to make people depend on fresh supply from them.
Original FULL article.
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/3/e1701475.full [sciencemag.org]
I put them on my watch list.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Ayn Anonymous on Tuesday April 10 2018, @01:10AM
I see what's the problem.
> ...convert micro-crystalline cellulose to butanol: (i) generating butanol up to 1.93 g/liter
1.) *micro-crystalline* cellulose need a lot of energy to produce.
2.) 1.93 g/liter means you need about 500 litre micro-crystalline cellulose to produce 1 litre butanol.
Well, they need for sure work on the output ratio.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday April 10 2018, @02:16AM (3 children)
Ultimately, its not about food or non-food feedstocks. Its all about acres.
How many acres does it take to to produce the feed-stock and how much NET fuel per acre.
But more than that its about WHICH acres you have to use.
Something like switch grass [wikipedia.org] can crow on very marginal land, harvested twice a year with existing bailing equipment, with no need to re-seed and therefore does not compete with food crops.
The process of converting switchgrass cellulose to ethanol or butanol is well understood, although I suppose the magic mushrooms might help.
Why aren't we doing more of it? Because we have a legislated solution.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday April 10 2018, @03:03AM
s/a legislative solution/regulatory capture/
Remember, regulations don't kill businesses, (corrupt) people do.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 10 2018, @03:48AM
Corn cobs and stalks are mainly cellulose.
Up to a point, you can have an advantage of using a food stock from which you derive a higher value (than before) of the non-food part of it.
But again, speaking about "limit points", even fusion energy can reach a point where's "all about acres" - if you build a Dyson sphere around the Sun and still need more energy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Funny) by Muad'Dave on Tuesday April 10 2018, @02:29PM
> switchgrass can crow on very marginal land
I wasn't aware that science had crossed male gallus domesticus with grasses.