How to jettison fossil fuel
Source: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/business-tech/how-to-jettison-fossil-fuel/article66071200.ece
Author: M RAMESH
In a research paper published in the preprint server bioRxiv.org, Timothy Sheppard, et al, suggest a new technology called ‘electromicrobial production’ (EMP) of SAF, which, as the name suggests, uses microbes. “Production of hydrocarbons using electrically powered microbes employing fatty acid synthesis-based production of alkanes could be an efficient means to produce drop-in replacement jet fuels using renewable energy,” the authors say. These microbes “have an extraordinary ability to manufacture organic compounds using electricity as the primary source of metabolic energy”, they say. This process uses light, atmospheric carbon dioxide and electricity. There are two ways of getting microbes to produce biomass. One is hydrogen oxidation, where the microbes consume hydrogen to produce biomass. The second - EEU - involves delivery of electrons into cells, either through a diffusible intermediary such as water-soluble quinones, or through direct electrical contact with an anode. “We believe the time is right to start scaling up production of jet fuels with EMP,” say the authors of the paper. They believe that “hydrogen-mediated EMP” is a slightly more efficient method, but are also working on EEU as a viable alternative