Korean research team extracts gasoline from E. coli for the first time

According to South Korea’s “Korean Daily” reported on September 30, Korean researchers have developed the first E. coli to make gasoline. Just like the principle that yeast breaks down sugar to make beer, this microorganism can convert weeds or wood dregs into gasoline. If this research continues, it will be able to use non-edible plant resources to make petrochemical products such as automotive fuel or rubber, and make significant contributions to solving energy difficulties and environmental protection.

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Professor Lee Sang-soo and Cui Yong-jun of the Department of Life Chemistry Engineering at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said on the 29th that E. coli has been developed to convert non-edible plants such as trees and weeds into gasoline through metabolic engineering. Metabolic engineering refers to the technique of deforming microbial genes or developing new genes that have never existed before, in order to produce compounds that meet the requirements.

Gasoline is extracted from petroleum. Generally, crude oil is heated to 30-140 degrees Celsius to separate gas that has become gas. However, diesel oil needs to be heated to above 250 degrees to become gas. Both fuels are chain hydrocarbons composed of carbon and hydrogen.

The difference is the length of the chain. The number of carbon atoms in gasoline is 4-12, the number of diesel fuel is 13-17, and the carbon chain is slightly longer. After E. coli disintegrates plants, it can synthesize fatty acids with 16-18 carbon atoms. After deforming the genes of E. coli, the team developed fatty acids with 10-12 carbon atoms. After other deformed genes removed one of the carbon atoms, the final E. coli produced gasoline with 9 to 11 carbon atoms.

Although the U.S. research team published a report in the journal Science in 2010, it has for the first time developed microorganisms that use plants to make diesel, but it uses microbes to make gasoline that has a shorter carbon chain than diesel.

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