EU Project Seeks to Develop Microalgae that Make Engine-Ready Fuels

The European Union-funded project dubbed DirectFuel is developing microalgae strains that catalyze direct conversion of solar energy and carbon dioxide into engine-ready fuels.

Direct conversion means that biofuel production should not require destructive extraction and further chemical conversion. In the proposed biological production process, engineered microalgae strains will directly secrete non-toxic gaseous fuels that can function in existing or minimally modified combustion engines. Development of the intended strains would allow low-cost production of transport fuel that does not contribute to greenhouse gas emission and does not compete for agricultural land.

DirectFuel researchers are targeting to produce ethylene and short-chain alkanes ethane and propane in photosynthetic cyanobacteria. As no natural biochemical pathways are known to exist for short-chain alkane production, the team is seeking to introduce new metabolic pathways into engineered cyanobacteria strains towards production of volatile alkanes.

The research team has already gained advanced understanding of the genes involved in the catalytic conversion. Work on targeted enzyme engineering is underway, which aims to tailor the encoded enzymes so that they can act on desired substrates. The team is also now working to engineer the metabolism of the host organisms in order to enhance carbon dioxide assimilation and thus increase yield. In addition, a preliminary process layout has been prepared and a laboratory-scale photo-bioreactor constructed.

The project has received almost 5 million euros in EU funding and completion is expected by 2014. It is coordinated by the University of Turku in Finland.