Scientists Develop Algae Strain with Increased Fat Production
June 21, 2017http://biofuels-news.com/display_news/12490/major_step_towards_algae_fuel_production_on_an_industrial_scale/
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Scientists from ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics (SGI) have developed an algae strain capable of converting carbon into energy-rich fat which can then be converted into biofuels. While using carbon dioxide to generate fat from algae is not new, the amount of fat produced by this new strain is significantly greater than from most algae.
SGI and ExxonMobil scientists have been tweaking the parts of the algae genome related to nitrogen absorption. The result is a strain of algae with about 40% of its mass as fat, which is double the fat of conventional algae. These findings can be considered as a significant step towards industrial algae biofuel production.
The next step for the scientists will be increasing the algae's ability to convert sunlight into biomass to increase fat production as well as testing and engineering more algae grown under various conditions.
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