Forget the Barrels, Use a Petri Dish: Bioengineering Rocket Fuel

Two scientists at Georgia Tech’s BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to produce high-energy fuel that can be used in rockets, missiles and other aerospace applications.

Created by Stephen Sarria and Assistant Professor Pamela Peralta-Yahya, the new fuel production technology leverages a strain of E. Coli to synthesize pinine, an energy dense hydrocarbon found in pine trees.

In their method, the two young scientists use E. Coli as a carrier for two enzymes, three pinene synthases & three geranyl diphosphate synthases (both of which are found in trees). By inserting these enzymes into the bacteria, they turned the biological mechanisms of the organism into pinine-producing factories that yield a high-energy precursor to a tactical fuel.

Currently, JP-10, the most commonly used rocket fuel, is fairly difficult to produce with only a minute amount available per barrel of oil. Any new method for creating addition fuel could be a boon to the aerospace industry.

While the researchers’ work has yielded fine results, there’s still a lot of work to be done if their fuel synthesis method is to be commercially viable. At this point the duo’s most vexing problem is overcoming a bottleneck created by their method’s natural, biochemical processes.

“We found that the enzyme was being inhibited by the substrate, and that the inhibition was concentration-dependent,” said Peralta-Yahya. “Now we need either an enzyme that is not inhibited at high substrate concentrations, or we need a pathway that is able to maintain low substrate concentrations throughout the run. Both of these are difficult, but not insurmountable, problems.”

Back in their lab the two researchers are forging ahead with their bio-engineered fuel creation method and looking to increase their pinine yields.  In the distant future Peralta-Yahya and Sarria believe they’ll be able to compete with the $25 / gallon price point pegged to JP-10 fuel.

If they can reach that point rocketry could become a lot less expensive, and E. Coli might become the first bacteria to make a direct contribution to space exploration.

Image Courtesy of Georgia Tech & NASA