As I’ve written about recently (e.g. here), there has been tremendous progress in engineering bacteria that are more capable of performing the tasks we assign to them, especially in processing biomass. This study considered how advances made in enabling bacteria to better ferment galactose (a type of sugar) have opened a completely new arena of potential biofuel: Seaweed.
RCS Highlights:
“When Americans think about biofuel crops, they think of corn, miscanthus, and switchgrass. ln small island or peninsular nations, though, the natural, obvious choice is marine biomass,…
overexpression increased galactose fermentation by 250 percent when compared to a control strain. ”This discovery greatly improves the economic viability of marine biofuels,” [Jin] said….
Marine biomass is an attractive renewable source for the production of biofuels for three reasons:
- Production yields of marine plant biomass per unit area are much higher than those of terrestrial biomass;
- Marine biomass can be depolymerized relatively easily compared to other biomass crops because it does not contain recalcitrant lignin and cellulose crystalline structures [basically, it’s easier to break down - RCS];
- The rate of carbon dioxide fixation by marine biomass is much higher than by terrestrial biomass, making it an appealing option for sequestration and recycling of carbon dioxide, he said.
