Researchers at a Houston university have found a new way to use bacteria to convert sugar into a gasoline substitute quickly and efficiently.
The research team, from Rice University in Texas, has engineered a modified type of E. coli that, at a "breakneck pace," changes glucose into butanol, a biofuel that will work as a gasoline substitute in most engines, said Autos.ca.
Butanol is what the researchers call a "drop-in" biofuel: because its properties are so similar to traditional petrochemicals, it can often be dropped in in place of the fuels used in things like cars.
Researchers at another university, Texas A&M, experimented with using E.coli to make hydrogen in 2008; around the same time, Wisconsin researchers were trying out a different bacteria-free method of converting sugar into fuel.
