DOE awards Washington University in St. Louis $3.9 million to develop bacteria for biofuel production

In Missouri, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have received a $3.9 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop bacteria that manufacture renewable biofuels — energy sources made from plants or microbes.

The researchers, representing a collaboration of investigators at the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering & Applied Science, seek to make biofuels whose production would not compete with the food supply.

The researchers are studying a type of bacteria called Rhodococcus opacus, originally discovered growing on toxic compounds outside a chemical plant. These bacteria thrive on these toxic compounds, using them as a source of food for the production of biofuels.

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