Creating Gasoline from E. coli

Oct-03-13 Researchers have developed a way to use E. coli to produce gasoline, giving the bacteria yet another boost from its rather poor reputation.

A team from Daejon, South Korea developed the technique by using metabolic engineering to create E. coli that produce short-chain alkanes—a potential substitute for gasoline. When the modified E.coli were fed glucose from non-food plants, the enzymes produced by the E.coli converted the glucose into fatty acids and then into hydrocarbons structurally and chemically identical to the hydrocarbons in commercial fuel.

The team was able to produce 580 mg of gasoline per liter of bacteria-cultured broth, and is working on increasing that amount.

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[WSJ.COM]
[RESEARCH SEA]

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