Non-fermentative pathways for synthesis of branched-chain higher alcohols as biofuels

Global energy and environmental problems have stimulated increased efforts towards synthesizing biofuels from renewable resources. Compared to the traditional biofuel, ethanol, higher alcohols offer advantages as gasoline substitutes because of their higher energy density and lower hygroscopicity. I...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature 2008-01, Vol.451 (7174), p.86-89
Main Authors: Atsumi, S, Hanai, T, Liao, J.C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Alcohols
Amino acids
Biodiesel fuels
Bioelectric Energy Sources
Biofuel production
Biofuels
Biological and medical sciences
Biomass energy
biosynthesis
Biotechnology
Butanols - chemistry
Butanols - metabolism
Carbon sources
Chemical synthesis
Chromatography
E coli
Energy
Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli - genetics
Escherichia coli - metabolism
Ethanol
Fermentation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gasoline
Genetic Engineering
genetically engineered microorganisms
Glucose - metabolism
Humanities and Social Sciences
Industrial applications and implications. Economical aspects
isobutanol
letter
metabolic engineering
Methods
microbial physiology
Microbiological synthesis
multidisciplinary
Production processes
Renewable resources
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:Global energy and environmental problems have stimulated increased efforts towards synthesizing biofuels from renewable resources. Compared to the traditional biofuel, ethanol, higher alcohols offer advantages as gasoline substitutes because of their higher energy density and lower hygroscopicity. In addition, branched-chain alcohols have higher octane numbers compared with their straight-chain counterparts. However, these alcohols cannot be synthesized economically using native organisms. Here we present a metabolic engineering approach using Escherichia coli to produce higher alcohols including isobutanol, 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-phenylethanol from glucose, a renewable carbon source. This strategy uses the host's highly active amino acid biosynthetic pathway and diverts its 2-keto acid intermediates for alcohol synthesis. In particular, we have achieved high-yield, high-specificity production of isobutanol from glucose. The strategy enables the exploration of biofuels beyond those naturally accumulated to high quantities in microbial fermentation.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4679
DOI:10.1038/nature06450