MIT researchers make waste gas-to-liquid fuel technology breakthrough

In China, researchers from MIT looked at gaseous substrates that could be made available at low cost and sufficiently large scale for industrial fuel production using a new bioconversion scheme that effectively converts syngas, generated from gasification of coal, natural gas, or biomass, into lipids that can be used for biodiesel production. The integrated conversion method comprises of a two-stage system first using an anaerobic bioreactor converting mixtures of gases of CO₂ and CO or H₂ to acetic acid using the anaerobic acetogen Moorella thermoacetica that is then fed as a substrate to a second bioreactor, where it is converted aerobically into lipids by an engineered oleaginous yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica.