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Modifying Microbes to Create Fuel

Breakthrough:
By modifying microbes and using a one-step fermentation process, LS9 Inc. hopes to produce biofuels and chemicals that offer increased environmental benefits and improved economies.

Business:
LS9, Inc., United States

The Story:
Modifying Microbes to Create Fuel

Many scientists and researchers are racing to come up with a biofuel to replace petroleum, but LS9 Inc. is approaching the challenge by genetically modifying microbes that will create an ethanol-like fuel.

The biotech company is using genes from blue-green algae that naturally make miniscule amounts of fuel, and transplanting the genes into E. coli where it churns out 100 times more fuel than the algae did.

Synthetic biologists are using organisms such as yeast and E. coli to create the next generation of green fuels, to replace fuel sources such as ethanol that have driven up corn prices and swallowed vast swaths of agricultural land.

As well, synthetic fuels can store more energy per gallon, can be easily extracted, and can be used in existing engines.

The big difference in their approach is that it uses a one-step fermentation process to convert renewable raw materials into a broad portfolio of low-carbon petroleum replacement products. This efficiency enables it to produce fuels and chemicals that offer increased environmental benefits and improved economics over multi-step technologies.

Their Renewable Petroleum™ technology enables the rapid and widespread adoption of renewable transportation fuels. Patent-pending UltraClean™ fuels are custom engineered to have higher energetic content than ethanol or butanol; to have fuel properties that are essentially indistinguishable from those of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel; and to be distributed in existing pipeline infrastructure and run in any vehicle.

Translating the synthetic biology discovery into a commercially viable product is another story altogether, though the company has produced its fuels on a small scale and successfully tested them in engines. They hope to reach commercial viability in 2013 from their Brazilian plant.

The company has won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) highest environmental honor for its revolutionary Renewable Petroleum™ technology that converts sustainable, plant-based materials into low-carbon fuels and chemicals.

[PORTLAND PRESS HERALD]
[LS9.COM]

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