The authors of the new work modified a microbe called Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1 so that it could produce
As a result, microbes synthesized n-butanol, itscan be used in a mixture with gasoline or diesel. Compared to ethanol, this is a fairly energy-intensive compound, and it also has a low tendency to evaporate.
To obtain such modified microbes,the authors created a mutant form of the bacterium that did not fix nitrogen. Accordingly, it could not grow and develop in environments where the only source of nitrogen was its gaseous form. But biologists artificially “taught” the bacterium to synthesize n-butanol.
During a normal life process, such as microbial electrosynthesis, bacteria attach to a negatively charged cathode in the reactor to be powered by electricity.
As a result, according to the authors, the bacteriaconsumes a fixed amount of electricity, and it does not increase even during the synthesis of n-butanol. Despite this, the amount of product produced is higher than that of the original bacteria.
As far as we know, this study is the firstan attempt to produce biofuels using a microbial electrosynthesis platform. We hope that this can be the starting point for the future production of clean fuels.
Wei Bai, PhD Student, Department of Energy, Ecology and Chemical Engineering
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