Researchers see breakthrough in efficient biofuel production

MSN and Tech Explore highlighted a research collaboration between the University of Cincinnati and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory exploring how alcohol produced by biomass is deadly toxic to biomass cells.

Understanding how this happens could help scientists create more efficient production of this renewable energy.

In a study published in the journal Langmuir, researchers reported on their breakthrough in understanding the vulnerability of microbes to the alcohols they produce during fermentation.

With the national lab’s neutron scattering and simulation equipment, the team analyzed fermentation of the biofuel butanol, an energy-packed alcohol that also can be used as a solvent or chemical feedstock.

Butanol is toxic to the very microorganisms that produce it. This toxicity limits the amount of butanol that can be generated during fermentation, presenting a challenge to bio-based production, said Jonathan Nickels, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.

“We investigated the biophysical basis for this hypothesis, and now we've demonstrated that it physically checks out,“ Nickels told Tech Explore.

Read the MSN story.

Featured image at top: Researchers in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science are working to produce biofuel more efficiently. Photo/Unsplash