Carbon is
Key for Getting Algae to Pump Out More Oil
Findings
may lead to new ways to produce raw materials for renewable fuels in
microscopic “green factories”
UPTON, N.Y.
— Overturning two long-held misconceptions about oil production in algae,
scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory
show that ramping up the microbes’ overall metabolism by feeding them more
carbon increases oil production as the organisms continue to grow. The findings
— published online in the journal Plant and Cell Physiology on May 28, 2012 —
may point to new ways to turn photosynthetic green algae into tiny “green
factories” for producing raw materials for alternative fuels.
“We are
interested in algae because they grow very quickly and can efficiently convert
carbon dioxide into carbon-chain molecules like starch and oils,” said
Brookhaven biologist Changcheng Xu, the paper’s lead author. With eight times
the energy density of starch, algal oil in particular could be an ideal raw
material for making biodiesel and other renewable fuels.
But there
have been some problems turning microscopic algae into oil producing factories.
For one
thing, when the tiny microbes take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, they
preferentially convert the carbon into starch rather than oils. “Normally,
algae produce very little oil,” Xu said.
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