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Home > Markets > Fuel Technologies
Developing Smart BiofuelsGenomics tools, genetically modified microorganisms, and a few naturally occurring plants are being integrated to produce new biofuels.by James Netterwald, PhD, MT (ASCP), Senior Editor, Drug Discovery & Development Magazine
Synthetic Genomics, a genomic-based biofuel and chemical developer based in La Jolla, Calif., is working on several exciting projects. Their two joint business partnerships, one with the petroleum producer BP, and the other with Asiatic Centre for Genome Technology (ACGT), are just some of them. "Our partnership with BP is mostly to explore enhancing hydrocarbon recovery from the subsurface," explains Aristides Patrinos, president of Synthetic Genomics. "And with ACGT, the aim is to genetically improve the yields of plants such as oil palm and iatropha, to produce high-yield plant materials and disease control methods, and create renewable fuels that don't compete with the food supply."
In addition to these joint ventures, internal programs at Synthetic Genomics aim to explore the potential for generating biofuels from both conventional feedstocks, such as sugar and cellulose, as well as harnessing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). For the biofuels industry, in general, the aim is to develop solutions for decreasing the levels of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere because rising levels of this greenhouse gas—produced by the burning of fossil fuels—has been implicated in Earth's global climate crisis. For Synthetic Genomics, developing a way to capture CO2 and convert it back to a renewable biofuel is crucial. "You can continue to burn things such as coal, oil or natural gas as long as you can capture the CO2 that is produced and then convert it back into another fuel," explains Patrinos, who adds that humans will likely be committed to burning fossil fuels for energy for many more years.
However, CO2 capture is not a novel idea.
In fact, it was developed by Patrinos in the 1990s while he served in the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). In this program of aquatic science, micro-algae were used to produce biomass by combining incoming sunlight with CO2. Some of this biomass was then used to produce biofuels, mainly renewable biodiesel. Initially, this program was cut because the price of oil at the time was lower than the cost of producing biodiesel. However, with recent rises in the price of oil and growing concerns about global warming, the program has been reinstated at the DOE.
These biofuel development projects most likely would not have occurred if not for the genomics revolution. More specifically, they would not have occurred without the power of shotgun DNA sequencing, developed by Craig Venter and colleagues in the 1990s. This technology, which was adopted for the sequencing of countless numbers of genomes, including that of humans, was also used by the DOE's Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, Calif., to sequence the genomes of several organisms key to the biofuel industry. One bacterium in particular, Methanococcus jannaschii, was sequenced by Craig Venter and his team. Armed with this sequence information, Synthetic Genomics is exploring the ability of these types of organisms to capture CO2 and convert it into methane, which can subsequently be used as a biofuel.
From trees to ethanolFossil fuels represent the remnants of millions of years of life on earth. "Our 10,000' view is that we're trying to take that umpteen million years out of the process and make fuels that are renewable and sustainable," says Nathan Margolis, lab manager at Mascoma Corp., Lebanon, N.H. "The concept is to try to use non-food plant matter as feedstock and turn it into ethanol." Until now, the production of ethanol from cellulosic plant material has been a multi-stage process. The current dogma is that the plant's main structural component, cellulose, must first be broken down into sugars by bacterial enzymes called cellulases; the sugars can then, in turn, be fermented by yeast to produce ethanol. "What makes our company unique is our attempt to use genetic modification to build a microorganism that will do both of those processes at the same time," says Margolis.
Mascoma's beginnings can be traced back to the 1980s when academic research performed by Mascoma co-founders Lee Lynd and Charles Wyman—both professors at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., at the time—explored the potential use of cellulosic ethanol as a biofuel. After years of careful research into ethanol-producing enzymes, cellulases, and fermentation processes, Lynd and Wyman, with funding from venture capitalists, opened Mascoma's doors in 2006; cellulosic ethanol production was now a commercial venture.
Mascoma is currently building two microbial platforms. The first contains a cellulase-producing bacterium that has been genetically modified (using standard DNA cloning tools) to produce fermentative enzymes also. In the second, a fermentative yeast strain has been genetically modified to produce cellulase. "We use PCR [polymerase chain reaction] to amplify genes of interest. We can take these genes (some of which were discovered at Mascoma), install them in plasmids, and then use these plasmids to transform bacteria and yeast," says Margolis. "We have DNA sequencing tools to make sure we have exactly what we're looking for before we start testing the microbes to see how they perform down the line." The goal is to have either one of these platforms produce cellulosic ethanol from raw plant materials in a single-stage process called consolidated bioprocessing (CBP). Both platforms are currently being tested for their efficiency of ethanol production, so Mascoma has not yet settled on single platform.
The production process occurs in a small-scale bioreactor that contains the organism (yeast or bacteria) and pre-treated plant materials. Ethanol is constantly produced in these reactors over several days. Liquid from the reactor is analyzed for both purity and percent ethanol concentration over this time. "Basically, it's a dark liquid that contains ethanol that can then be distilled and blended with gasoline for transportation fuel," Margolis explains.
Mascoma's R&D labs are responsible for small-scale "test" production of cellulosic ethanol, which is often produced in nothing larger than a 10-L bioreactor. In contrast, their pilot plant facility, located in Rome, N.Y., can produce thousands of gallons of ethanol. And with plans of building a commercial-scale production plant in the upper peninsula of Michigan some time next year, the scale-up process is already well underway. "But we have no doubt in our mind that we'll be constantly modifying and tweaking the process to improve it because even a half of a percentage point increase in the efficiency of this process could mean serious amounts of money when you're trying to replace the entire nation's transportation fuel stock," says Margolis.
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For more information, contact: • Aristide Patrinos, President, Synthetic Genomics, info@syntheticgenomics.com, 858-754-2900 • Charles Wyman, Chairman, Mascoma, info@mascoma.com, 603-676-3320
Company’s Other Products
Synthetic Genomics
11149 North Torrey Pines Road
La Joilla CA 92037
Phone: 858-754-2900
Fax: 858-754-2988
http://www.syntheticgenomics.com
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