Research and development activities in the biofuels arena, already moving forward at a sprightly clip, appear to be picking up the pace. And this is with good reason: petroleum experts are increasingly of the mind that oil production is about to peak (if it hasn’t done so already), and the huge potential costs of a petroleum-based energy system, costs that are never factored into the pump price but which must be paid nonetheless, are obviously writ large on the Gulf of Mexico.
Most of the activity in bringing far more carbon neutral biofuels made from plants to the market has involved, for lack of a better term, plucking the low-hanging fruit. Ethanol continues to be primarily derived from heavily subsidized and energy intensive corn. Biodiesel can be derived from recycled cooking oils, but is also currently manufactured from virgin raw materials such as oils from palm and soy that divert calories away from the food stream. Increasing demand for such fuels could be expected to impose unwelcome pressures on the global food supply without rethinking the inputs.
Fortunately, progress continues to be made in sourcing inputs to the biofuels manufacturing process that help us to leave the food for dinnertime. We recently wrote of a newly engineered strain of yeast that can convert the sugars from woodier plant material that so far have been more difficult (and expensive) to access. And today, we learn by way of EurekAlert that researchers have stumbled upon a variety of fungus that all by itself is a veritable lean, green oil-producing machine.
Exploration of algae as a producer of energy continues to be active, as we have previously written. A limiting factor in relying upon algae however is the requirement for significant access to sunlight. New research conducted in Spain, and currently published in full in the online edition of the journal Energy & Fuels, highlights the Mucor circinelloides variety of fungus that can produce significant amounts of glycerol, a primary precursor ingredient to biodiesel, not only without taking up perfectly good arable land but without needing to design for the solar requirements as well.
According to the preliminary results, the fungus is capable of producing and accumulating more than half of its dry mass weight in glycerol, which represents a significant increase in the known capability of fungus-derived oil production. The research team expresses confidence that the application is appropriate for large-scale development and offers the potential to drive down the costs of biodiesel production.
Photo by Galia via Wikimedia Commons.