Alternative routes to biofuels: Light-driven biofuel formation from CO2 and water based on the ‘photanol’ approach

Hellingwerf, Klaas J.; Mattos, M. Joost Teixeira de

doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2009.02.002

Cited by 61 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Cyanobacteria are known to be a source of several fuel types. Hydrogen, for example, can be produced by many strains, ethanol is produced from their carbohydrates, biogas (methane) via anaerobic digestion of their biomass, photanol, short-chained alcohols produced by combining phototrophy and chemotrophy in genetically engineered cyanobacteria [21] and diesel from their FA and hydrocarbons [22]. The demand for present and new industrial applications of cyanobacteria has set the frame for this study.…”

Section: Biofuelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyanobacteria in Scandinavian coastal waters — A potential source for biofuels and fatty acids?

et al. 2014

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Since land-based biofuel production competes with conventional food production, a water-based biomass and biofuel production from cyanobacteria offers large potential. This study investigates the application potential of cyanobacteria for fuel production and by-products by mimicking nutrient depleted environmental conditions. Three Baltic cyanobacteria strains (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, Dolichospermum lemmermannii and Nodularia spumigena) were inoculated in full nutrient levels, as well as phosphorus and nitrogen depleted medium, before being monitored for 14 days. For screening reasons, multiple parameters such as fatty acids, photosynthetic pigments including phycobilins, biovolume, photosynthetic activity, inorganic nutrients, particulate organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous were investigated every seven days. We observed a strong negative relationship between lipid content, growth and nutrient availability, resulting in high lipid and pigment production in combination with a limited growth rate in nutrient depleted treatments. Our results suggest that cultivation and harvest of bloom-forming cyanobacteria for fuel and by-product production are feasible in Scandinavia, but strongly depends on the desired compounds and biomass. Each cyanobacteria species originally has a species-specific chemical fingerprint that may be modified by rearing conditions and harvesting period to meet the needs of the consumer. This leads to important conclusions regarding future culturing conditions and biomass production of the desired compounds.

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Section: Biofuelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyanobacteria in Scandinavian coastal waters — A potential source for biofuels and fatty acids?

et al. 2014

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“…If the activity of the added fermentative pathway can be tuned properly, one could achieve a situation in which such a photofermentative organism functioned as a photo-catalyst for the reaction: CO 2 + H 2 O → "biofuel product" + O 2 . This proposed concept has suggested as being applicable to the synthesis of various products, ranging from lactic acid and ethanol, for which a simple fermentative metabolic pathway suffices (Hellingwerf and Teixeira de Mattos, 2009), via sugars (Ducat et al, 2012), to longer chain alkanes and alcohols (Machado and Atsumi, 2012). Elsewhere, we have referred to this concept of solar biofuel production as the "photanol concept" and several initiatives have been undertaken to test its economic viability.…”

Section: The "Photanol" Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyanobacterial cellulose synthesis in the light of the photanol concept

et al. 2013

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“…This implies that the central metabolism in the selected chimera should be largely redirected toward the biofuel product, and ideally biomass would be formed only to compensate for the death rate of the organism in the producing cell suspension. The terms "photofermentative" and "photanol" (16) have been coined for this idea to contribute to the efficient and sustainable harvesting of solar biofuel.…”

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confidence: 99%

Engineering a Cyanobacterial Cell Factory for Production of Lactic Acid

Angermayr

Paszota

Hellingwerf

2012

Appl Environ Microbiol

165

144

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Metabolic engineering of microorganisms has become a versatile tool to facilitate production of bulk chemicals, fuels, etc. Accordingly, CO 2 has been exploited via cyanobacterial metabolism as a sustainable carbon source of biofuel and bioplastic precursors. Here we extended these observations by showing that integration of an ldh gene from Bacillus subtilis (encoding an L-lactate dehydrogenase) into the genome of Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803 leads to L-lactic acid production, a phenotype which is shown to be stable for prolonged batch culturing. Coexpression of a heterologous soluble transhydrogenase leads to an even higher lactate production rate and yield (lactic acid accumulating up to a several-millimolar concentration in the extracellular medium) than those for the single ldh mutant. The expression of a transhydrogenase alone, however, appears to be harmful to the cells, and a mutant carrying such a gene is rapidly outcompeted by a revertant(s) with a wild-type growth phenotype. Furthermore, our results indicate that the introduction of a lactate dehydrogenase rescues this phenotype by preventing the reversion.C oncerns about shrinking supplies of fossil fuel and about climate change have been a strong incentive during the past decade for the development of sustainable alternatives to provide fuel and chemical feedstock. Because of these concerns, several different ways to produce solar biofuel have been proposed. Initially the proposed procedures were based on the conversion of agricultural crops into short-chain alcohols. This unfortunately results in a direct competition for resources between the energy sector and food supply. Therefore, second-generation types of processes were proposed, in which one aims at the conversion of the triglyceride fraction from, e.g., green algae into biodiesel, which relaxes the competition between energy and the food supply. Nevertheless, the conversion of CO 2 into biofuel, driven by solar energy, is still rather indirect even in this second-generation approach: CO 2 is first converted into the complex building blocks of biomass, from which subsequently the triglyceride fraction must be extracted and converted into biodiesel.For these reasons, a third-generation type of process has been proposed, in which CO 2 is converted into biofuel directly, accomplished by the introduction of genes encoding a metabolic-e.g., fermentative-pathway into a cyanobacterium, resulting in the emergence of a "photofermentative" chimera. For several biofuel and chemical feedstock products, including ethanol, ethylene, isoprene, D-lactic acid, glucose, sucrose, isobutyraldehyde, and 1-butanol, the proof of principle of this approach has been provided (see references 3,8,10,24,25,28, and 39 and references therein). Ideally, this process would be carried out in such a way that the majority of the CO 2 that is fixed in the cyanobacterial CalvinBenson cycle is converted into the selected product. This implies that the central metabolism in the selected chimera should be largely redirected tow...

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Alternative routes to biofuels: Light-driven biofuel formation from CO2 and water based on the ‘photanol’ approach

Cited by 61 publications

References 38 publications

Cyanobacteria in Scandinavian coastal waters — A potential source for biofuels and fatty acids?

Cyanobacteria in Scandinavian coastal waters — A potential source for biofuels and fatty acids?

Cyanobacterial cellulose synthesis in the light of the photanol concept

Engineering a Cyanobacterial Cell Factory for Production of Lactic Acid

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