one-step sugar-to-diesel conversion
LS9 reports one-step sugar-to-diesel conversion
Drop-in fuels one step closer to parity with fossil fuels
In California, LS9 announced a major scientific breakthrough that will significantly lower the cost of producing “drop-in” hydrocarbon fuels. This breakthrough has allowed LS9 to accelerate its technology and demonstrate alkane production at pilot scale.
The discovery
In the article “Microbial Biosynthesis of Alkanes” published in Science magazine, a team of LS9 scientists announce the discovery of novel genes that, when expressed in E.coli, produce alkanes, the primary hydrocarbon components of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
“This is a one step sugar- to-diesel process that does not require elevated temperatures, high pressures, toxic inorganic catalysts, hydrogen or complex unit operations” said Steve del Cardayre, Vice President of Research and Development.
This last comment is a subtle dig at IPO-bound Amyris Biotechnologies (or what is more politely known as a “point of differentiation”). Amyris’s engineered yeast makes the fragrant oil farnesene; it’s converted to farnesane, a fuel molecule, by adding hydrogen.
What does it mean? What’s an alkane, anyway? Isn’t LS9 working on something else (yes, Grasshopper, that’s right) Why is all this significant? All the answers and more at biofuelsdigest.com