Tag Archives: development
Studying Thermophillic Microbes For Better Biofuel Production
Published on Monday, 29 July 2013 Studying thermophillic microbes for better biofuel production The microbial world of biomass deconstruction became clearer with a JBEI/JGI/EMSL study of a thermophillic bacterial consortium adapted to switchgrass. This splatterplot is a visual representation of the consortium’s metagenome. (Image courtesy of Patrik D’haeseleer, JBEI) A recently concluded study on thermophiles – microbes that thrive at extremely high temperatures and alkaline conditions – could help determine the best microbial enzyme to break down biomass to extract fermentable sugars for advanced biofuels. Scientist from the United States Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute and Joint Genome Insitute, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory worked on the project. They examined a compost-derived consortium of thermophillic bacterium adapted to grow on switchgrass. Using a combination of metagenomic and metaproteomic technologies, they identified individual microbial species whose enzymes were the most active in breaking down the switchgrass biomass. “This marks the first time that the functional roles of individual microbial populations within a consortium have been linked with specific enzyme activities, in this case cellulose and hemicellulose,” said Steven Singer, director of JBEI’s microbial communities program. Advanced biofuels are synthesized from the sugars in cellulosic biomass. These sugars such as cellulose and hemicellusose need to be extracted from lignin, the tough woody material that make up the plants cell wall and gives it structure and shape. Thermophilic microbes contain enzymes for lignocellulosic biomass deconstruction to get to cellulose and hemicelluloses without the use of pretreatment chemicals such as ionic liquids. “Using pretreated switchgrass at temperatures up to 80 degrees Celsius, we demonstrated that this consortium is an excellent source of enzymes for the development of enzymatic cocktails tailored to biorefinery processing conditions,” says Blake Simmons, a chemical engineer who heads JBEI’s Deconstruction Division and was a member of this research collaboration. They first used shotgun sequencing, a metagenomics technique that would enable them to determine the metabolic potential of all the members of the studied consortium. They then used metaproteomic measurements to identify those enzymes that were actually produced by the microbial community. Analysis of metagenomic sequencing data identified the most abundant microbial populations in the consortium to be closely related strains of Thermus thermophilus and Rhodothermus marinus. However, based on the assigned fractions of the switchgrass deconstruction proteome, the strains showing the most active role in switchgrass deconstruction were Gemmatimonadetes and Paenibacillus. By comparison, the more numerous Rhodothermus strain contributed fewer enzymes to biomass deconstruction. By gaining a more comprehensive understanding of how microbial consortia work to breakdown biomass and identifying the genes and enzymes involved, the scientist hope to be able to develop better processes for advanced biofuels. “The list of genes and enzymes generated by this study has been placed into our exp ression pipeline and are being used to develop optimized cocktails that are capable of generating high sugar yields from pretreated lignocellulosic biomass,” said Mr. Simmons. – EcoSeed Staff Continue reading
World Energy Consumption To Grow By 56 Percent Between 2010 And 2040
iea News | CIOL Bureau WASHNGTON, USA: The International Energy Outlook 2013 (IEO2013) projects that world energy consumption will grow by 56 percent between 2010 and 2040. Total world energy use rises from 524 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2010 to 630 quadrillion Btu in 2020 and to 820 quadrillion Btu in 2040. Much of the growth in energy consumption occurs in countries outside the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), known as non-OECD, where demand is driven by strong, long-term economic growth. Energy use in non-OECD countries increases by 90 percent; in OECD countries, the increase is 17 percent. The IEO2013 Reference case does not incorporate prospective legislation or policies that might affect energy markets. Renewable energy and nuclear power are the world’s fastest-growing energy sources, each increasing by 2.5 percent per year. However, fossil fuels continue to supply almost 80 percent of world energy use through 2040. Natural gas is the fastest-growing fossil fuel in the outlook. Global natural gas consumption increases by 1.7 percent per year. Increasing supplies of tight gas, shale gas, and coalbed methane support growth in projected worldwide natural gas use. Coal use grows faster than petroleum and other liquid fuel use until after 2030, mostly because of increases in China’s consumption of coal and tepid growth in liquids demand attributed to slow growth in the OECD regions and high sustained oil prices. The industrial sector continues to account for the largest share of delivered energy consumption; the world industrial sector still consumes over half of global delivered energy in 2040. Given current policies and regulations limiting fossil fuel use, worldwide energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise from about 31 billion metric tons in 2010 to 36 billion metric tons in 2020 and then to 45 billion metric tons in 2040, a 46-percent increase. World economic background The world is still recovering from the effects of the 2008-2009 global recession. As these effects continue to be felt, many unresolved economic issues add to the uncertainty associated with this year’s long-term assessment of world energy markets. Currently, there is wide variation in the economic performance of different countries and regions around the world. Among the more mature OECD regions, the pace of growth varies but generally is slow in comparison with the emerging economies of the non-OECD regions. In the United States and Europe, short- and long-term debt issues remain largely unresolved and are key sources of uncertainty for future growth. Economic recovery in the United States has been weaker than the recoveries from past recessions, although expansion is continuing. In contrast, many European countries fell back into recession in 2012, and the regionss economic performance has continued to lag. Japan, whose economy had been sluggish before the devastating earthquake in March 2011, is recovering from its third recession in 3 years. Questions about the timing and extent of a return to operation for Japan’s nuclear power generators compound the uncertainty surrounding its energy outlook. In contrast to the OECD nations, developing non-OECD economies, particularly in non-OECD Asia, have led the global recovery from the 2008-2009 recession. China and India have been among the world’s fastest growing economies for the past two decades. From 1990 to 2010, China’s economy grew by an average of 10.4 percent per year and India’s by 6.4 percent per year. Although economic growth in the two countries remained strong through the global recession, both slowed in 2012 to rates much lower than analysts had predicted at the start of the year. In 2012, real GDP in China increased by 7.2 percent, its lowest annual growth rate in 20 years. India’s real GDP growth slowed to 5.5 percent in 2012. The world’s real gross domestic product (GDP, expressed in purchasing power parity terms) rises by an average of 3.6 percent per year from 2010 to 2040. The fastest rates of growth are projected for the emerging, non-OECD regions, where combined GDP increases by 4.7 percent per year. In the OECD regions, GDP grows at a much slower rate of 2.1 percent per year over the projection, owing to more mature economies and slow or declining population growth trends. The strong growth in non-OECD GDP drives the fast-paced growth in future energy consumption projected for these nations. Continue reading
UN Takes Steps To Boost Demand For Carbon Market Credits
Grenada office will help Carribbean countries identify projects for the Clean Development Mechanism Grenada in the Caribbean is the setting for the UN’s third collaboration centre. (Source: rappensuncle) The UN has taken steps to accelerate the development of carbon markets in the Caribbean with the opening of a regional collaboration centre in Grenada. The office will help local governments, NGOs and businesses interested in accessing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) identify projects and opportunities. The CDM is the only truly global carbon market, and is designed to develop low carbon projects in the developing world with financing from richer nations. “The regional collaboration centres aim to increase participation in the CDM, but their work differs substantially from region to region and from project to project,” said the chair of the CDM executive board, Peer Stiansen. “The centre in Grenada will focus on the needs of the Caribbean Region in an effort to make it an increasingly attractive destination for CDM projects.” This is the third regional collaboration centre established by the UNFCCC, with the first in Lomé, Togo and the second in Kampala, Uganda. Analysts say it urgently needs to boost interest in its carbon trading system in order that it remains relevant. Yesterday Bloomberg reported an “unprecedented freeze” in UN carbon trading. According to data from ICE Futures Europe, no UN Certified Emission Reduction, or CER, changed hands on July 22 and July 23. Supply of CERs currently outstrips demand, and prices have dropped by 80% since the start of the year, raising concerns that the mechanism is losing its ability to operate. Earlier this month, the CDM passed the 7000 project mark with 1,000 new projects having been accepted since February. – See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/…h.7Wd5sEGG.dpuf Continue reading
