One Step Closer to the Biosynthesis of Renewable Propane

by Lindsay Dodgson (Power-Technology.com) ... The pressure is on to reduce the environmental impact of transport fuels, particularly after the climate change agreement in Paris. With that in mind, researchers from the University of Manchester and Imperial College have made significant advances in the search to develop a way of making renewable propane gas (C3H8) through bioengineering.

The team, led by Professor Nigel Scrutton, director of the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, and Dr Patrik Jones from Imperial College London, have developed a new metabolic pathway for the biosynthesis of propane gas by genetically engineering an enzyme found in algae. In nature, enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts and help complex reactions occur, such as digestion and photosynthesis, often breaking down large molecules into smaller ones.

There is no natural way to make small-chain hydrocarbon propane, so the team first had to identify an enzyme that was capable of working with large hydrocarbon molecules, and then edit its genome. They used an enzyme found in algal cyanobacteria that researchers have previously employed to catalyse a reaction in order to form butanol (C4H9OH). It was then genetically engineered to make it capable of carrying out a reaction to convert a natural cell substrate into propane gas, instead of butanol.

In other words, an enzyme that was not naturally equipped to change hydrocarbon chains into propane gas was genetically modified to do so. The team's method was published in the journal Biotechnology of Biofuels.

The team's new biosynthesis pathway uses biomass or waste feedstocks, which could come from plants or waste streams from other industrial processes. READ MORE Abstract