From the article:
…
What’s going on inside the Magic Temple
What’s going on behind the scenes in the world of Joule? Generally, the work falls in four areas.
1. Getting the organism to over-produce the alkane, alkene or alcohol of interest.
2. Getting a cost efficient photobioreactor design.
3. Controlling heat. Systems heat up in the day, when the sun is out. Cooling costs money.
4. Looking at ways to extend an organism’s productivity from “daylight hours” to “round the clock”.
Of all of the four, perhaps the fourth is the most fascinating and elusive of all., Because they would have to endow a photosynthetic organism with heterotrophic properties — train it to extract energy from sunlight by day, then extract if from sugar by night. That’s known as mixotrophic properties, and such organisms do exists. But they don’t, er, happen to naturally secrete diesel and jet fuel.
But there’s been work done, interestingly including Joule, and synecocchus elongatus. Last yearf we reported on efforts out of UC Davis to convert an obligate photoautotroph to a heterotroph is desirable for more efficient, economical and controllable production systems. More on that here.
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http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2014/07/03/joules-quest-for-fuels-from-co2-sunlight-and-water/
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