According to the “Chemistry World†report of the United Kingdom on January 2, American scientists recently developed a new route for the production of long-chain alcohol fuels using microorganisms. As an alternative fuel, it has a better application prospect than ethanol.
Researchers at the University of California in the United States processed E. coli to produce isobutanol and other promising long-chain alcohol fuels. Butanol and branched-chain alcohols containing four or five carbon atoms are far better substitutes for ethanol than gasoline. They can store more energy per unit volume (but still less than gasoline) and absorb only from the atmosphere. Less water molecules are less prone to pollution and less corrosive than ethanol.
As early as 1916, people began to use microbial fermentation of sugar to produce butanol and ethanol, but the process has not been able to compete with the cheap oil route. Today, with the rise in the price of oil, the microbial route has once again attracted the attention of many researchers.
Traditional fermentation pathways only produce linear 1-butanol, and the team's goal is to produce branched isobutanol with a higher octane number than straight-chain butanol. Therefore, they designed a brand-new route to produce a variety of alcohols with a number of carbon atoms in the molecular chain of 3 to 5, among which isobutanol with good characteristics has a relatively high yield. At the same time, since the reaction is based on an amino acid biosynthetic pathway, it should be easier to substitute other microorganisms for E. coli that are less suitable for industrialization in this route. "This research advance has opened the door to exploring the use of various higher alcohols as biofuels, not just ethanol and 1-butanol," the researchers said.
Butanol is microbially toxic, so a key obstacle to the commercialization of biobutanol synthesis is to increase the tolerance of microorganisms. Researchers said that their cooperation with a biofuel company has started, and the above obstacles mainly exist in technical process design. In the next two to three years, the industrialization of bio-butanol should still be in its infancy.
Researchers at the University of California in the United States processed E. coli to produce isobutanol and other promising long-chain alcohol fuels. Butanol and branched-chain alcohols containing four or five carbon atoms are far better substitutes for ethanol than gasoline. They can store more energy per unit volume (but still less than gasoline) and absorb only from the atmosphere. Less water molecules are less prone to pollution and less corrosive than ethanol.
As early as 1916, people began to use microbial fermentation of sugar to produce butanol and ethanol, but the process has not been able to compete with the cheap oil route. Today, with the rise in the price of oil, the microbial route has once again attracted the attention of many researchers.
Traditional fermentation pathways only produce linear 1-butanol, and the team's goal is to produce branched isobutanol with a higher octane number than straight-chain butanol. Therefore, they designed a brand-new route to produce a variety of alcohols with a number of carbon atoms in the molecular chain of 3 to 5, among which isobutanol with good characteristics has a relatively high yield. At the same time, since the reaction is based on an amino acid biosynthetic pathway, it should be easier to substitute other microorganisms for E. coli that are less suitable for industrialization in this route. "This research advance has opened the door to exploring the use of various higher alcohols as biofuels, not just ethanol and 1-butanol," the researchers said.
Butanol is microbially toxic, so a key obstacle to the commercialization of biobutanol synthesis is to increase the tolerance of microorganisms. Researchers said that their cooperation with a biofuel company has started, and the above obstacles mainly exist in technical process design. In the next two to three years, the industrialization of bio-butanol should still be in its infancy.