by Blaine Friedlander (Phys.Org) To unravel how intricate waste biomass converts to biofuels, a Cornell professor studied the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum to decipher its metabolism. Understanding the bacterium's sugar-processing complexities may lead to improved biofuel yields.
"It is recognized for over a century that Clostridium acetobutylicum [a soil bacterium] is a viable biofuel producer. Right now, though, this bacterium is not very efficient at processing complex wastes to biofuel production," said Ludmilla Aristilde, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering.
Using nonedible plant materials for biofuel production is important to sustainable energy options, and processing these materials involves metabolizing the plant's sugars. "Now, we seek to understand the complexities of utilizing the different sugars we find in plant biomass. So instead of having to separate the different sugars, we look to save time and money by using the whole complex biomass and turn it into fuel," she said.
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Aristilde used an emerging biochemical approach, called metabolomics, to track different sugar carbon atoms inside the bacterial cells and learn why the cell factory does not efficiently convert all sugar carbons into biofuel. READ MORE Abstract (Microbial Biotechnology)
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