Biotech Updates

Scientists Tweak Photosynthesis for Better Biofuel

January 20, 2012

For many years, scientists have been searching the best ways to produce biofuels. In this pursuit, the major problem is that plants can only transform 1 to 3 percent of sunlight into carbohydrates, thus much land is required to grow corn for ethanol. However, there could be another way out to produce biofuels by maximizing plant's advantages such as its ability to absorb carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, and its ability to repair itself when damaged. Thus, the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-e) has funded 10 projects that aim to produce biofuel through genetic engineering. The largest grant was given to the University of Florida to develop pine trees that produce more turpentine, a potential fuel.

ARPA-e's Electrofuels program also aims to induce microbes to build artificial leaves that use the electricity from solar cells to split water into oxygen and hydrogen for use as fuel. Another similar program on biofuels called PETRO (short for plants engineered to replace oil) also aims to deal with the problem of decreasing water supplies for crops.

Read the original article at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tweaking-photosynthesis.