Another interesting article in the news today. Apparently scientists have developed a new strain of yeast that can produce far more ethanol in a given time period than ‘normal’ strains.
Scientists have created a new strain of yeast that radically speeds up the production of ethanol, the biofuel that can be combined with petrol or diesel to make ‘gasohol’ — a fuel far less polluting than conventional ones.
The strain produced 50 per cent more ethanol over 21 hours than normal yeast, say the team, who publish their research today (8 December) in Science.
Ethanol is made by adding yeast to plant material such as maize, which ferments it. But production is problematic, in part because ethanol is highly toxic to the yeast used for fermentation.
The scientists used a new ‘top-down’ technique to boost ethanol tolerance, in which they changed one part of the yeast copying mechanism so that multiple genes necessary to achieve ethanol and glucose tolerance were simultaneously altered.
For all of you serious scientific souls, here is the original Journal article published in Science: Engineering Yeast Transcription Machinery for Improved Ethanol Tolerance and Production
Technorati Tags: yeast, ethanol, biofuel, fuel, green fuels, alternative energy, gasohol, science
Written by Bentley on December 8th, 2006 with no comments.
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Not really in the ‘zone’ today I’m afraid, but I did want to make mention of some noteworthy tidbits. This morning I came across another interesting article about using algae to produce biofuel.
In case you hadn’t noticed, this is a topic I find really fascinating!
Anyway, here are some exerpts:
FORT COLLINS – Colorado State University and Solix Biofuels, Inc., a Boulder-based start-up company, are working in partnership to develop technology to mass-produce algae that create oil that can be converted into biodiesel fuel.
Officials from Solix and CSU announced the partnership today at a presentation held at CSU’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory just north of downtown Fort Collins. Also attending were officials from the city of Fort Collins and New Belgium Brewing Co., which will house the first large-scale, 350-foot-long algae-growing bioreactor.
Bryan Willson, laboratory director, said experiments with small-scale algae bioreactors have shown the potential to commercialize the technology designed by Jim Sears, founder of Solix.
…
Sears said the technology promises to be much more potent in its productivity than corn or other biomass sources of alternative fuel.
“Algae are the fastest-growing organisms on the planet, and can produce 100 times more oil per acre than conventional soil-tilled crops that are now being grown for biofuel use,” he said.
Solix officials said widespread construction of algae “bioranches” could eventually meet the U.S. demand for diesel fuel – about 4 million barrels a day – by growing algae on otherwise vacant land next to power plants and ethanol plants. Those plants produce carbon dioxide, which the algae can turn into oil, keeping it out of the atmosphere.
“I hope this is the start of a new crop that will impact and help meet energy needs worldwide,” Sears said.
Sears estimated it would require about 4 million acres to offset 25 percent of the 60 billion gallons of diesel fuel consumed in the U.S. each year. He said an estimated 100,000 technicians would ultimately be needed to tend the bioreactors, creating new jobs in rural parts of the nation.
Technorati Tags: biofuel, biodiesel, ethanol, algae, green fuels, alternative energy, Solix Biofuels, green power, bioreactor, fuel
Written by Bentley on December 8th, 2006 with no comments.
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