3/29/2010 PERMALINK
Genetic mod energy breakthrough alters microbes to ooze oil for renewable biofuel. Researcher Xinyao Liu and professor Roy Curtiss at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute have modded photosynthetic microbes to secrete oil. the new technology bypassing energy and cost barriers that have hampered green biofuel production. 'The real costs involved in any biofuel production are harvesting the fuel precursors and turning them into fuel,' said Roy Curtiss, director of the Biodesign Institute's Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology. 'By releasing their precious cargo outside the cell, we have optimized bacterial metabolic engineering to develop a truly green route to biofuel production.' Photosynthetic microbes called cyanobacteria offer attractive advantages over the use of plants like corn or switchgrass, producing many times the energy yield with energy input from the sun and without the necessity of taking arable cropland out of production.