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Thread: University of Turku gets 4 million Euro EU grant to turn sunlight into gasoline

  1. #1

    Default University of Turku gets 4 million Euro EU grant to turn sunlight into gasoline

    The European Commission has agreed to fund a project to develop photosynthetic microorganisms that directly convert solar power and carbon dioxide into engine-ready fuel.

    The project – involving The University of Manchester and eight partner institutions – aims to produce propane, a non-toxic end product that is volatile at room temperature, easily liquefied and, having been used for more than half a century, has an existing distribution infrastructure. Furthermore, the method will not compete for agricultural land and contains no destructive extraction processes.
    The FP7 collaborative project is "Direct biological conversion of solar energy to volatile hydrocarbon fuels by engineered cyanobacteria" (Acronym: DirectFuel, grant agreement no. 256808). The 9-partner project is coordinated by the University of Turku headed by the coordinator, Dr. Patrik Jones (Group Leader, Bioenergy group), and deputy coordinator, Prof. Eva-Mari Aro (Molecular Plant Biology group). The project is carried out over 4 years starting October 1, 2010, with a total maximum project funding of 3,729,519 EUR.
    The consortium partners include Dr. Patrik Jones and Prof. Eva-Mari Aro (Univ. Turku, Finland), Prof. Merja Penttilä (Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus (VTT), Finland), Prof. Wolfgang Hess (Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg, Germany), Dr. Ralf Steuer (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany), Prof. Nigel Scrutton (Univ. Manchester, UK), Prof. Neil Marsh (Univ. Michigan, USA), Prof. Yumiko Sakuragi (Univ. Copenhagen, Denmark), Dr. Alessandra Frattini (Chemtext Italia SRL, Italy) and Mr. Martin Trtilek (Photon Systems Instruments SPOL SRO, Czech Republic).
    Professor Nigel Scrutton, who led the Manchester Faculty of Life Sciences team with Professor David Leys, said: “The successful outcome of the DirectFuel project will revolutionize the production of biofuels by engineering photosynthetic microbes that produce engine-ready fuels without the need to harvest biomass. Through this paradigm change, increases in efficiency will result that will have major, sustainable, positive impacts on the environment and the economics of renewable energy production.”
    The DirectFuel project sets the challenging target of developing a photobiological process for direct conversion of sunlight and CO2 into engine- and infrastructure-ready transport fuels such as propane. Biological energy-conversion processes are particularly well-suited for production of the hydrocarbon fuel molecules that today's transport industry rely on. However, no natural capability for such a conversion is known at present, the task of the DirectFuel project is therefore to construct new metabolic pathways with such capability. Propane is chosen as a key-target as it is volatile at room temperature (at atmospheric pressure), yet easily liquefied at moderate pressure. As a consequence, this allows the fuel product to be harvested without disturbing the biological production process (thereby avoiding the need to extract fuel or fuel-precursors) while still allowing the fuel to be directly and easily used under high energy-density storage conditions. Propane has already been utilized as vehicle fuel for over half a century and many EU countries already have an existing infrastructure for distribution of liquefied propane in the form of LPG. For example, over 5,000 petrol stations in Germany sell LPG. The entire process is thus tailored for both high-efficiency production and direct implementation through compatibility with current distribution and end-use infrastructures.
    The DirectFuel project covers a broad spectrum of methodologies and R&D questions, including (1) enzyme screening, evolution and targeted engineering, (2) computational modeling of photobiological metabolism, (3) engineering and optimization of the metabolism of cyanobacteria, (4) development of photobioreactor technology and (5) theoretical life cycle analysis.
    Wanna drive around on moonbeams and unicorn farts? Coming to a petrol station near you, real soon!

    harglebargle government inefficiency blargle
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  2. #2
    I'm not exactly certain how this is good as what they seem to be attempting to do is increase the operational lifespan of hydrocarbon based fuel burning vehicles, which is the very thing we were trying to move away from by switching to electric, or hydrogen powered motor vehicles. Hank Hill would be pleased though.
    . . .

  3. #3
    I'm more interested in the science here...what are the other inputs? I think gasoline requires oxygen, carbon and hydrogen (?)...but what else? Is hydrogen harvesting easy BTW?

  4. #4
    Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"

  5. #5
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnaught View Post
    I'm more interested in the science here...what are the other inputs? I think gasoline requires oxygen, carbon and hydrogen (?)...but what else? Is hydrogen harvesting easy BTW?
    Strictly speaking, you'd only need carbon dioxide and water.
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  6. #6
    Hydrogen's easy and pretty cheap (don't light matches though), helium's the tricky one. All helium we have is from the radioactive substances radiating in the Earth's crust. Nuclear balloons, people!
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  7. #7
    Is gasoline really that simple of a compound? I mean hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons. But I really had no idea, given all the refining I thought it was a bit tougher to make.

    Though I worry what, in theory, this kind of a development could do to climate change if people felt comfortable burning away tons of gas. I mean, sure we would be taking CO2 out of the air...but we would also be putting plenty back in (in theory).

  8. #8
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnaught View Post
    Is gasoline really that simple of a compound? I mean hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons. But I really had no idea, given all the refining I thought it was a bit tougher to make.

    Though I worry what, in theory, this kind of a development could do to climate change if people felt comfortable burning away tons of gas. I mean, sure we would be taking CO2 out of the air...but we would also be putting plenty back in (in theory).
    Where did you think all the original gasoline came from? And refining is necessary because all kinds of hydrocarbons are mixed up together - so you try to separate the heavy oil from the light oils, for example. And then you crack chains of hydrocarbons which are too long.

    But are hydrocarbons complex compunds? Nope.
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the lamb make thee?

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnaught View Post
    Though I worry what, in theory, this kind of a development could do to climate change if people felt comfortable burning away tons of gas. I mean, sure we would be taking CO2 out of the air...but we would also be putting plenty back in (in theory).
    This was the point I was trying to raise. Currently we're investing in alternative forms of fuel for vehicles due to the fact that gas has risen so much in price, is not expected to decline anytime soon, and people are being made aware that it is a finite resource that will eventually run out, and just increase in price as we do so. If we suddenly have a renewable source of it, this movement could be heavily undermined. It would be far better to have cars running off electricity than gas.
    . . .

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Illusions View Post
    This was the point I was trying to raise. Currently we're investing in alternative forms of fuel for vehicles due to the fact that gas has risen so much in price, is not expected to decline anytime soon, and people are being made aware that it is a finite resource that will eventually run out, and just increase in price as we do so. If we suddenly have a renewable source of it, this movement could be heavily undermined. It would be far better to have cars running off electricity than gas.
    The oil calorie to food calorie ratios of most of the food consumed alone indicates that there will be a massive need for fueling transportation of food (and other consumer goods); I haven't really read up on the specifics but do we have any means of producing enough electricity to run all the trucks, trains and ships that run on petrol now?
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Nessus View Post
    I haven't really read up on the specifics but do we have any means of producing enough electricity to run all the trucks, trains and ships that run on petrol now?
    I haven't either, so I'm unsure. I'm also unsure as to which I favor more, a mode of transportation that is far less polluting, or the ability to continue feeding billions of people.
    . . .

  12. #12
    I like the way you think!

    I get what you're saying, but private transport, while massively stupid and so on, isn't the only thing to consider when seeking alternatives to our petrol economy. If shit hits the fan, it isn't the third world starving and having problems, it's us!
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  13. #13
    I don't understand why you're all so skeptical about this. The project is to make propane, which is the third simplest hydrocarbon out there. The difficulty isn't in the synthesis - we can do that from basic constituents fairly easily. The difficulty is in doing so using photosynthetic bacteria. There's a lot of very active research out there about how to make metabolic pathways that will catalyze the necessary reactions, and the principle is hardly crazy. I think real applications will require some work on the scale-up - my PI has been very interested in designing biomaterial systems for precisely such a scale-up once the underlying bacteria have been appropriately modified.

    They're already been using modified microorganisms to do other important tasks - cleanup of chemicals in particular - so it's hardly science fiction. Biopolymers are far more complex than anything we use for fuel nowadays.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by wiggin View Post
    I don't understand why you're all so skeptical about this.
    We're not skeptical about this, we're debating whether its a good idea to do so or not.
    . . .

  15. #15
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    Or whether it will be efficient.

    Quote Originally Posted by Illusions View Post
    This was the point I was trying to raise. Currently we're investing in alternative forms of fuel for vehicles due to the fact that gas has risen so much in price, is not expected to decline anytime soon, and people are being made aware that it is a finite resource that will eventually run out, and just increase in price as we do so. If we suddenly have a renewable source of it, this movement could be heavily undermined. It would be far better to have cars running off electricity than gas.
    I don't see the problem. If we create gas through microorganisms, then the carbon needed will come out of the air. Thus this technology would be zero emission in the sense that you only emit what you took out of the air previously. Zero sum game, practically.
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the lamb make thee?

  16. #16
    Bacteriological synthesis of molecules can be extremely efficient, Khendra, I'm sure you know this. There are serious technical challenges, of course - purification, appropriate metabolic engineering, etc. - but you can theoretically make serious amounts of fuel very quickly and with very little energetic cost (while at the same time cutting out much of the carbon cost; Khendra, it won't be all of the carbon costs, any more than nuclear or wind energy is actually carbon-free).

    From the perspective of whether we should be developing biological synthesis of hydrocarbons, hell yes. Certainly we should shift hydrocarbon use to those things for which there aren't good alternatives, but tanks and planes aren't going to be run on anything other than hydrocarbons for a very long time. For that matter, I'd say in the long run it will be more useful for plastics than for energy.

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