US team claim biofuels process advance

Washington – A US researh team has devloped a technology using bacteria to convert plant matter directly into iso-butanol, which can be burned in regular car engines with a heat value higher than ethanol and similar to gasoline.

The work was conducted by researchers at the US Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Using consolidated bioprocessing, a research team led by James Liao of the University of California at Los Angeles for the first time produced isobutanol directly from cellulose.

The team’s work, published online in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, represents across-the-board savings in processing costs and time, plus isobutanol is a higher grade of alcohol than ethanol.

“Unlike ethanol, isobutanol can be blended at any ratio with gasoline and should eliminate the need for dedicated infrastructure in tanks or vehicles,” said Liao, chancellor’s professor and vice chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and a partner in BESC.

“Plus, it may be possible to use isobutanol directly in current engines without modification.”