Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin report that they have succeeded in creating a new bacterium that produces cellulose that can be converted into ethanol. The scientists say that the bacterium could provide a significant part of the fuel consumption of the United States, if the process could be reproduced on a large scale
One of the biggest problems facing the planet today is the use of oil as a fuel. Beyond oil's tendency to pollute the environment, it is a depleting resource that will not be renewed in our lifetime. Therefore, many scientists are trying to find an alternative to oil as a fuel. One of the alternatives that is currently being tested and even tested in reality, is adding ethanol to the gasoline we use to drive cars. Already in 2006 there were six million cars in the United States capable of running on fuel consisting of 85% ethanol.
The ethanol is produced in the fermentation process of glucose - a sugar that exists in nature - to carbon dioxide and ethanol. Glucose itself is produced from various plants, such as sugar cane and corn, and is therefore a self-renewing resource, since the plants can be re-sown every season.
But even here there is a problem, because these food plants become fuel for the advanced western world, instead of being used for nutrition. Some argue that since the United States began to produce ethanol from edible plants, the effects are evident in the global market: food prices are rising and the inhabitants of poor countries are suffering. To this must also be added the fact that extensive forests in Brazil are receding above the ground, with the aim of making room for additional growing areas for plants from which ethanol can be extracted. It is clear, therefore, that it is necessary to optimize the idea of extracting ethanol from the plant.
As a direct response to this need, report Professor R. Malcolm Brown Jr. (R. Malcolm Brown Jr.) and Dr. David Nobles Jr. (David Nobles Jr.) in an article recently published in the scientific journal Cellulose, that they succeeded in developing a bacterium that secretes glucose, sucrose and cellulose. The bacteria create clean cellulose, and the scientists predict that it will be possible to turn it into ethanol in simple, clean and energy-efficient processes.
Nobles created the new bacterium - Cyanobacteria - by introducing a collection of genes for creating cellulose, taken from the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum (Acetobacter xylinum), which is not photosynthetic. This bacterium is known to be an efficient cellulose producer, but it feeds on an organic substrate and is therefore ineffective in creating cellulose on a large scale.
The genetically engineered cyanobacteria use sunlight as a source of energy, and Brown and Nobles report that it will be possible to grow them in cellulose factories. The factories will be located on land that is not used for agriculture, and the bacteria will be grown in salty water, which is not good for drinking or irrigating crops. The cellulose, glucose and sucrose can be continuously filtered from the water, without damaging the living cells. This is an economical and efficient method, especially considering that in the production of sugars from ordinary plants and algae it is necessary to kill the entire organism in the process.
Brown and Nobles calculated that the total area needed to produce fuel for the transportation needs of the United States is 820,000 square miles - an area many times larger than the entire area of the State of Israel. Work with photo-bioreactors in the laboratory showed the potential to increase productivity 17 times. If it is possible to reproduce these results on a large scale and in field conditions, then in order to produce biofuels from cyanobacteria, only 3.5% of the area designated for growing corn will be needed.
Be that as it may, the inventions in the field of bio-fuels are getting more and more advanced and added one on top of the other at the beginning of the 21st century. Also a previous invention published in 'Yaden' a short time ago proved that it is possible to produce pure hydrogen from plant sugars using only enzymes, in a clean and energy-efficient process. A combination of the two inventions may allow a transition to the use of hydrogen fuel or ethanol, as needed.
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Michael and Roy Thank you, you are both right - I was wondering why not look for/create a single cell that produces glucose, so that they can easily produce ethanol, and also why even increase the amount of cellulose considering our ability to produce ethanol from it and its presence also in the inedible parts of the corn.
Roy - It seems to me that you did not understand Baal Zevov's question.
If I understand his question correctly, then the answer is as follows:
Pay attention to several areas at the same time:
One area is that of utilizing cellulose for energy production
The second domain is that of a cellulose organism.
The present article belongs to the second field.
The reason for the need for additional cellulose production is that there are not enough corn leaves.
Since even growing cellulose as a plant takes up space, there is interest in technologies that produce more cellulose per unit area.
The hope is that the technology that is developing at the same time - that of using cellulose to produce energy - will also reach maturity.
What is the energy ratio that can be produced from a liter of gasoline to a liter of ethanol?
Beelzebub,
Right, but unfortunately it seems difficult to create a photosynthetic single cell capable of producing glucose in large quantities under the required conditions.
As my grandmother says, well, schwinn. We'll make do with what we have until the next invention.
Why the emphasis on cellulose? I thought the whole problem was that currently the cellulose in plants is not being used to produce ethanol. If there was a convenient and cheap way to use cellulose, there would be no problem using edible plants - we would eat the corn cob and convert the cellulose in its other parts into fuel.
age,
I am qouting :
"Even if it is possible to make bacteria produce oil or a substance similar to it in terms of energy, it is likely that soon there will be other organisms that will make them their main diet."
The bacteria in question will be well preserved in the tanks to create the fuel, and there is no reason for organisms to come and feed on them. There is also no reason for them to reach the sea, or for them to create an 'ecological disaster'. Why did such bacteria create an ecological disaster at all?
As for everything else, that's exactly why this discovery is so important. Precisely to avoid a situation where forests are being destroyed, you need these bacteria.
age:
It's all bad and good that there are those who see their whole role in saying this!
And for those who don't understand the magnitude of the biodiesel and ethanol disaster.
"More than 6 times the size of the State of Israel are created every year"
are burned and destroyed, for the purpose of producing oil substitutes.
Even if it is possible to make bacteria produce oil or a substance similar to it in terms of energy, it is likely that soon there will be other organisms that will make it their main diet.
Also, those germs will reach the sea sooner rather than later, and will cause a devastating ecological change
that the results cannot be known in advance.
Even our drinking water will not be immune from possible mutations.
If all the progress and solutions for the production of renewable energy
I'm sorry to disappoint you but we are in the stone age.
Pet prices are rising, and food prices are also rising with them.
130,000 square kilometers of forests that, according to the United Nations, are destroyed every year around the world prove that the other solutions are not currently working.
Deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia is only the tip of the iceberg, the main alternative use for which forests are cleared and burned in Indonesia is the cultivation of palm trees for the production of biodiesel (so-called environmentally friendly fuel).
Also, the production of biodiesel and ethanol pushes other crops and cattle grazing deep into the Amazon, creating an economic incentive for the destruction of forests.