European Researchers to Produce Cheaper Bioethanol from Microalgae

A team of European researchers is targeting to produce bioethanol directly from photosynthesizing microorganisms for less than 0.40 euro per liter through metabolic engineering approaches.

The European Union-funded project DEMA (Direct Ethanol from MicroAlgae) aims to develop and eventually market an economically competitive technology for the direct production of bioethanol from microalgae with low-cost photobioreactors. The DEMA Consortium, composed of nine partners from both academia and industry from six EU countries, seeks to accomplish this objective via a metabolic engineering approach. Metabolic engineering alters the chemical reactions that occur within the microalgae cells so that they can convert solar energy, water and carbon dioxide into ethanol more effectively. Initial proof-of-concept results have shown the feasibility of using microalgae to produce bioethanol for less than 0.40 per liter.

Microalgae are naturally abundant and grow very rapidly. The use of these photosynthetic microorganisms for production of biofuels does not require agricultural land, and therefore, does not compete with food production, unlike crop-based biofuel production systems.

The DEMA Consortium is coordinated by the University of Limerick in Ireland. The DEMA project has received almost 5 million euros from the EU under the energy strand of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).