Global climate change has led to numerous efforts to slash emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels. In a new approach, the UCLA researchers genetically engineered to consume a cyanobacterium dioxide carbon and produce isobutanol, a liquid fuel that has great potential as an alternative to gasoline. Even better, the reaction is powered by energy from sunlight through photosynthesis.
As world leaders gather in l to XV International Conference on Climate Change held in Copenhagen scientists make a strong effort to constributed to reducing greenhouse gases.
The research, published in the Dec. 9 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology, has two advantages in the global objective of achieving a cleaner energy economy and greener. Firstly, it recycles carbon dioxide which would reduce the levels of greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels you. Y e n Second, uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can be used in the existing energy infrastructure, including in most cars.
While other alternatives to gasoline include biofuels derived from plants or algae, all these processes require several intermediate steps before the refinement of usable fuel.
“This new approach avoids the need for the deconstruction of the biomass, whether in the case of lacelulosa biomass or biomass of algae, which constitiye an economic barrier to biofuel production,” said team leader James C. Liao, profesor de UCLA. “Therefore, this is potentially much more efficient and less costly than the current approach.”
Using the cyanobacterium Synechoccus elongatus, the researchers first succeeded in genetically enhance carbon dioxide fixation by increasing the enzyme RuBisCO. Then spliced the genes of other organisms to design a strain through the “intake” dioxide carbon and sunlight produces gas isobutiraldehido. The low boiling point and high vapor pressure of the gas allows it to easily be stripped of the system. An ideal place for this system would be the existing plants that emit carbon dioxide, potentially allowing greenhouse gases to be captured and recycled directly into liquid fuel.
“We will continue to improve the speed and performance of production,” said Liao. “Other obstacles include the efficiency of light distribution and reducing the costs of the bioreactor. We are working on solutions to these problems. ”
