E Coli: Bad for Your Stomach, Good for Peak Oil
A San Diego-based company says it’s engineered a new strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) — one of the bugs that causes food poisoning — that can produce a building block for plastic products without petroleum.
Genomatica, a company “focused on producing sustainable chemicals,” says its new version of the E. coli bacterium naturally produces 1,4‐butanediol (BDO), an organic and petroleum-based compound used to manufacture hundreds of different kinds of plastic, rubber and fiber products. The process not only uses 30 percent less energy than standard BDO production techniques, but can be fueled with non-food-based, renewable plant waste.
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The new process “has the potential to move the chemical manufacturing industry from current petrochemical processes to modernized bio‐manufacturing for a number of very important and widely used industrial chemicals,” said Harvey Blanch, a professor of biochemical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.
BDO production is currently a $4 billion-a-year industry, with an annual output of 3 billion pounds going to the manufacture of plastics, pharmaceuticals, automotive parts, solvents, electronic components and even fabrics for clothing. And, as oil and natural gas prices rose dramatically this year, so too did the cost of BDO.
Genomatica is now working on ways to boost its bacterial production of BDO on a large, commercial bioreactor scale. The company says it expects its process to be cost-effective within a year, even if crude oil prices fall as low as $50 per barrel.
Genomatica is also being honored this week as one of AlwaysOn’s 2008 GoingGreen 100. The greentech gathering runs through today in San Francisco.
You can learn more about Genomatica here.
