Biotech E. coli for Biofuel Production

A research group of the University of California Los Angeles Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically-altered the common bacteria Escherichia coli to produce  high-chain alcohols from glucose. The bacteria's highly active amino acid biosynthetic pathway was shifted to alcohol production, including isobutanol, 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-phenylethanol. The higher-chain alcohols, such as isobutanol is preferred by consumers over ethanol because of  its higher energy densities, is not volatile or corrosive as ethanol, and do not readily absorb water. In addtion, branched-chain alcohols have higher-octane numbers, resulting in less knocking in engines. 

The research, published in Nature opens an unexplored frontier for biofuels producion in bacteria as well as in other organisms. "These results mean that these unusual alcohols in fact can be manufactured as efficiently as what evolved in nature for ethanol. Therefore, we now can explore these unusual alcohols as biofuels and are not bound by what nature has given us", said James Liao, a member of the research team.

For details of the press release, see: http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-engineering-researchers-develop-42502.aspx