(University of Manchester/Phys.org) Researchers from the University of Manchester are using synthetic biology to explore a more efficient way to produce the next generation of biobased jet fuels—partly made from seawater. — The Manchester research group, led by Professor Nigel Scrutton, director of the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) and supported by the prestigious US-based international maritime research agency Office of Naval Research Global (ONR), is using synthetic biology to help identify a more efficient and sustainable method to make biofuel than the one currently used.
Scientists have discovered that the bacteria species called Halomonas, which grows in seawater, provides a viable “microbial chassis” that can be engineered to make high value compounds. This in turn means products like biobased jet fuel could be made economically using production methods similar to those in the brewery industry and using renewable resources such as seawater and sugar.
The breakthrough behind this approach is the ability to re-engineer the microbe’s genome so to change its metabolism and create different types of high value chemical compounds which could be renewable alternatives to crude oil. Dr. Benjamin Harvey and his team of researchers at the world-leading Naval research facilities in China Lake, California, U.S., have pioneered this exciting work on converting biological precursors to relevant jet fuels.
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“In the case of the jet fuel intermediates we are bioproducing, they are chemically identical to petrochemical derived molecules, and will be able to ‘drop-in’ to processes developed at China Lake,” added Dr. Kirk Malone, director of commercialization at The University of Manchester’s MIB. READ MORE