In California, the fermentation process used to make cordite for bullets and artillery shells during WWI could be used to better ferret sugars found in biomass. A Berkeley Lab has been able to upgrade metabolic pathways for creating transportation fuels close to theoretical yields… up to a gallon of fuel from 16 pounds of sugars that are derived from lignocellulosic biomass. The key bacterium is Clostridium acetobutylicum.
Category: Research