Researchers engineer bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel
(Nanowerk News) Global climate change has prompted efforts to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels. In a new approach, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis. The research appears in the Dec. 9 print edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology and is available online.
Nature Biotechnology 27, 1177 – 1180 (2009)
Published online: 15 November 2009 | doi:10.1038/nbt.1586
Direct photosynthetic recycling of carbon dioxide to isobutyraldehyde
