Eco-Factor: Development of bacteria for production of bio-fuel butanol.
Sustainable energy research is getting big boost from the US administration to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The ARRA decided to fund a project led by a chemical engineering professor Scott Banta at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The project aims at developing bacteria that would produce bio-fuel butanol by feeding on carbon-dioxide present in the air and ammonia from wastewater or can be generated through a chemical process using sustainably generated electricity. The team under Scott Banta aims at reducing the cost of butanol production by using genetic engineering to device a new metabolic pathway for ammonia-oxidizing organism commonly used in wastewater treatment. The project is vital due to butanol’s properties which allow its integration into existing distribution and transportation network.
Via: Clean Technica
