Ada Genavia
Mar 26, 2012

New synthetic biology technique boosts microbial production of diesel fuel

Significant boosts in the microbial production of clean, green and renewable biodiesel fuel has been achieved with the development of a new technique in synthetic biology by researchers with the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). This new technique can detect metabolic changes in microbes during the production of fatty acid-based fuels or chemicals and control the expression of genes affecting that production. The result in one demonstration was a threefold increase in the microbial production of biodiesel from glucose. Fatty acids now serve as the raw materials not only for biodiesel fuel, but also for a wide range of important chemical products including surfactants, solvents and lubricants. 

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