Berkeley Lab Scientists Develop Bacterial Strain for One-Pot Biofuel Production

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a strain that enables a "one-pot" method for biofuel production from pre-treated plant material.

Ionic liquids are used to break down plant biomass. However, this same salt solvent impedes activity of the bacteria and the enzymes in later stages in biofuel production, requiring another step for removing the liquid. Hence, developing tolerant bacteria eliminates the need of another step in biofuel production.

The team found that an amino acid mutation in the E. coli rcdA gene leads to high tolerance to ionic liquids. The team used this strain as well as the ionic-liquid-tolerant enzymes from previous studies to develop the one-pot biofuel production line.

The team was successful in developing an ionic-liquid-tolerant E. coli that could also produce ionic-liquid-tolerant enzymes that produce biofuels. While ethanol may be one of the more common products to emerge from this process, researchers have also looked to more advanced biofuels including jet fuel.