A More Effective Way of Converting Sugars Into Biofuels

Recently, scientists have taken interest in corn because it can be used in the production of ethanol. This is a biofuel that can potentially be a clean-burning, renewable fuel. Corn was chosen because of how abundant it is in the United States. This is the only type of biofuel that is produced in serious quantities. However, the current issue with the production of ethanol is the processing of the lignocellulosic biomass (plant dry matter). The yield is not greater than the costs of creating the ethanol. In a ScienceDaily article, a new synthetic metabolic pathway for breaking down glucoses was tested and confirmed to produce 50% more ethanol. 

This new pathway is called non-oxidative glycolysis (NOG). NOG was created to potentially replace the current natural processed called glycolysis. This pathway utilizes enzymes from several different pathways found in nature. In the preliminary in vitro studies, NOG was shown to be successful. With a genetically engineered recombinant strain of E. coli, the results indicated that there was complete carbon conservation unlike glycolysis which loses carbon through the production of CO², a byproduct. In conjunction with CO² fixation, biofuels yield would increase and therefore making the conversion process more effective.

E. coli using non-oxidative glycolysis

Biofuels are one of the most discussed advances in today's society. I strongly believe that biofuel can solve a lot of the problems found in United States economy. On the other hand, the dependence on corn (or other commonly produced crops that are used for fuel and food) could also lead to higher prices if droughts occurred. Specifically, gas, animal products and meats would all increase in price if corn production is halted. I believe that extra precautions need to be taken when combining sections of the food and energy economies together.