Bacteria Feed the Alternative Fuel Push

ABC News On Campus reporter Andrea Alarcon blogs:

Researchers from the University of Florida say they have found bacteria growing in decaying “gumball trees,” that could speed up the process of making ethanol fuel.

Ethanol is usually derived from chemical reactions that break down compounds in the plant’s cells, producing more simple molecules that are later fermented into the alcohol. 

The common process is both time-consuming and costly, and researchers are searching for ways to make it more cost-efficient and a practical alternative to gasoline. It is frequently made in such countries as Brazil, which converts sugar cane to fuel.

Professor James Preston, team leader in UF’s microbiology and cell science department, found the Paenibacillus sp.strain JDR-2, an aggressive bacterium isolated from decaying sweet gum wood, when he was using it to grow shiitake mushrooms on his farm. Although he found the bacteria in a tree, it can be found in other kinds of wood. 

 “This bacterium has a unique metabolic potential in its ability to digest and metabolize,” Preston said. “The fully sequenced genome of this bacterium has led to the identification of genes that may be used to engineer other bacteria used to ferment sugars to ethanol and other chemicals.”

The production of cellulosic ethanol is inefficient because it has to undergo a process using heat and acids to break down the cells. The bacteria could speed up the process of ethanol production and reduce the cost by about 20 percent, Preston said.

The expanding market for fuel ethanol has been partially satisfied by the use of sucrose from sugar cane and starch from corn. But since they also serve as food sources, their diversion for fuel production affects their supply and cost, making them more expensive as food.

 “If we want to make ethanol, we ought to be making it out of this stuff,” Preston said. “Cellulosics are what we call underutilized resources.”

The UF team will continue its research to either move the relevant genes from the JDR-2 into an ethanol-producing bacterium, or to engineer the bacteria to make ethanol.