Richard Ingham Yahoo News 4 Nov 08;
PARIS (AFP) – A reddish microbe found on the inside of a tree at a secret location in the rainforests of northern Patagonia could unlock the biofuel of the future, say scientists.
Its potential is so startling that the discoverers have coined the term "myco-diesel" -- a derivation of the word for fungus -- to describe the bouquet of hydrocarbons that it breathes.
"This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a professor of biology at Montana State University.
"The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel that anything we use at the moment."
The study appears on Tuesday in a peer-reviewed British journal, Microbiology.
Strobel, a 70-year-old veteran of the world's rainforests, told AFP that he came across Gliocladium roseum thanks to "two cases of serendipity."
The first was in the late 1990s, when his team, working in Honduras, came across a previously unidentified fungus called Muscodor albus.
By sheer accident, they found that M. albus releases a powerful volatile -- meaning gassy -- antibiotic.
Intrigued by this, the team tested M. Albus on the ulmo tree, whose fibres are a known habitat for fungi, in the hope that this would show up a new fungus.
"Quite unexpectedly, G. roseum grew in the presence of these gases when almost all other fungi were killed. It was also making volatile antibiotics," said Strobel.
"Then, when we examined the gas composition of G. roseum, we were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. The results were totally unexpected and very exciting, and almost every hair on my arms stood on end."
Strobel's team put the G. roseum through its paces in the lab, growing it on an oatmeal-based jelly and on cellulose.
Extractor fans drew off the gases exuded by the fungus, and analysis showed that many of them were hydrocarbons, including at least eight compounds that are the most abundant ingredients in diesel.
Biofuels have been promoted as good alternatives to oil, which is sourced from politically volatile regions and is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect.
Plants store carbon from the atmosphere as a result of photosynthesis when they grow, and they release the carbon, as carbon dioxide (CO2), when they are burned.
Oil, though, comprises carbon that is stored underground. When it is burned the CO2 adds to the atmosphere.
One of the downsides of biofuels has been their impact on the world food market, because the present generation of fuels is derived from food crops that are grown on farmland.
Another avenue of exploration is in cheap, plentiful non-food fibrous plants and cellulose materials, such as switchgrass, wood chips and straw.
But these novel sources, hampered by costs and technical complications, are struggling to reach commercial scale.
"G. roseum can make myco-diesel directly from cellulose, the main compound found in plants and paper," said Strobel. "This means that if the fungus was used to make fuel a step in the production process could be skipped."
Instead of using farmland to grow biofuels, G. roseum could be grown in factories, like baker's yeast, and its gases siphoned off to be liquefied into fuel, he suggested.
Another alternative, he said, would be to strip out the enzyme-making genes from the fungus and use this to break down the cellulose to make the biodiesel.
Strobel said Montana State University had filed patents for the fungus, proceeds of which would be shared with local people.
G. roseum is a variant of a known fungus species called Gliocladium. "It might be" common in some forests, said Strobel.
Asked where the fungus had been found, he pointed to the experiences of the 1848 gold rush and said the location had to be protected: "The answer to that is, what if we pushed ourselves back about a hundred and fifty years and you heard a story about a guy finding gold out in California?"
Tree fungus could provide green transport fuel
Organism discovered in the Patagonian rainforest produces mixture of chemicals similar to diesel
Alok Jha, guardian.co.uk 4 Nov 08;
A tree fungus could provide green fuel that can be pumped directly into tanks, scientists say. The organism, found in the Patagonian rainforest, naturally produces a mixture of chemicals that is remarkably similar to diesel.
"This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a plant scientist from Montana State University who led the work. "We were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons."
In principle, biofuels are attractive replacements for liquid fossil fuels used in transport that generate greenhouse gases. The European Union has set biofuel targets of 5.75% by 2010 and 10% by 2020. But critics say current biofuels scarcely reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cause food price rises and deforestation. Producing biofuels sustainably is now a target and this latest work has been greeted by experts as an encouraging step.
The fungus, called Gliocladium roseum and discovered growing inside the ulmo tree (Eucryphia cordifolia) in northern Patagonia, produces a range of long-chain hydrocarbon molecules that are virtually identical to the fuel-grade compounds in existing fossil fuels.
Details of the concoction, which Strobel calls "mycodiesel", will be published in the November issue of the journal Microbiology. "The results were totally unexpected and very exciting and almost every hair on my arms stood on end," said Strobel.
Many simple organisms, such as algae, are already known to make chemicals that are similar to the long-chain hydrocarbons present in transport fuel but, according to Strobel, none produce the explosive hydrocarbons with the high energy density of those in mycodiesel. Strobel said that the chemical mixture produced by his fungus could be used in a modern diesel engine without any modification.
Another advantage of the G. roseum fungus is its ability to eat up cellulose. This is a compound that, along with lignin, makes up the cell walls in plants and is indigestible by most animals. As such, it makes up much of the organic waste currently discarded, such as stalks and sawdust.
Converting this plant waste into useful fuels is a major goal for the biofuel industry, which currently uses food crops such as corn and has been blamed for high food prices. Normally, cellulosic materials are treated with enzymes that first convert it to sugar, with microbes then used to ferment the sugar into ethanol fuel.
In contrast, G. roseum consumes cellulose directly to produce mycodiesel. "Although the fungus makes less mycodiesel when it feeds on cellulose compared to sugars, new developments in fermentation technology and genetic manipulation could help improve the yield," said Strobel. "In fact, the genes of the fungus are just as useful as the fungus itself in the development of new biofuels."
"Fungi are very important but we often overlook these organisms," Tariq Butt, a fungus expert at Swansea University, said: "This is the first time that a fungus has been shown to produce hydrocarbons that could potentially be exploited as a source of fuel in the future. Concept-wise, the discovery and its potential applications are fantastic. However, more research is needed, as well as a pilot study to determine the costs and benefits. Even so, another potential supply of renewable fuel allows us to diversify our energy sources and is certainly an exciting discovery."
John Loughhead, executive director of the UK Energy Research Centre, also welcomed the discovery but noted it is at its earliest stage of development. "This appears another encouraging discovery that natural processes are more capable of producing materials of real value to mankind than we had previously known. It's another piece of evidence that there is real potential to adapt such processes to provide energy sources that can help reduce our need for, and dependence on, fossil fuels."
The next stage for Strobel's work will be to refine the extraction of mycodiesel from the fungus. This requires more laboratory work to identify the most efficient ways to grow the organism and, perhaps, genetic modification of the fungus to improve yields. If successful, Strobel's technology will then need to be tested in a large-scale demonstration plant to solve any problems in scaling up to to commercial production.
Strobel also said that his discovery raises questions about how fossil fuels were made in the first place. "The accepted theory is that crude oil, which is used to make diesel, is formed from the remains of dead plants and animals that have been exposed to heat and pressure for millions of years. [But] if fungi like this are producing mycodiesel all over the rainforest, they may have contributed to the formation of fossil fuels."
Oil Creation Theory Challenged by Fuel-Making Fungus
Robert Roy Britt, livescience.com Yahoo News 4 Nov 08;
A newfound fungus living in rainforest trees makes biofuel more efficiently than any other known method, researchers say.
In fact, it's so good at turning plant matter into fuel that researchers say their discovery calls into question the whole theory of how crude oil was made by nature in the first place.
While many crops and microbes can be combined to make biofuels - including the fungi that became infamous as jungle rot during WWII - the newfound fungus could greatly simplify the process, its discoverers claim. Researchers have suggested that billions of acres of fallow farmland could be used to grow the raw material of biofuels. But turning corn stalks or switchgrass into fuel is a painstaking process and the end product is expensive and not entirely friendly to the environment.
The fungus, which has been named Gliocladium roseum, stands out in the crowd.
"This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said researcher Gary Strobel from Montana State University. "The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment."
The scientists are now working to develop its fuel producing potential, according to a paper published in the November issue of the journal Microbiology.
The fungus grows inside the Ulmo tree in the Patagonian rainforest in South America. "When we examined the gas composition of G. roseum, we were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives," the stuff of diesel, Strobel said. The fuel it produces has been dubbed "myco-diesel."
Cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose make up the cell walls in plants. They makes the stalks, sawdust and woodchip and cannot be digested by most living things. Some 400 million tons of this plant waste is produced ever year just from farmland, Strobel and his colleagues say. In current biofuel production, this waste is treated with enzymes called cellulases that turn the cellulose into sugar. Microbes then ferment this sugar into ethanol that can be used as a fuel.
If G. roseum can be used commercially to make fuel, a step could be skipped.
"We were very excited to discover that G. roseum can digest cellulose. Although the fungus makes less myco-diesel when it feeds on cellulose compared to sugars, new developments in fermentation technology and genetic manipulation could help improve the yield," Strobel explained. "In fact, the genes of the fungus are just as useful as the fungus itself in the development of new biofuels."
The discovery also questions assumptions about how fossil fuels are made.
"The accepted theory is that crude oil, which is used to make diesel, is formed from the remains of dead plants and animals that have been exposed to heat and pressure for millions of years," Strobel said. "If fungi like this are producing myco-diesel all over the rainforest, they may have contributed to the formation of fossil fuels."
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