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Microbes used to produce bio-diesel from carbon waste

Indian scientists have found a way to convert carbon-rich waste materials into bio-fuel Using
microbes growing in two diverse climatic conditions

iodiesel can be made from waste vegetable oil. This be converted into bio-diesel through a
Bcan be collected from chip shops and restaurants catalytic process,” he said.
and processed to make biodiesel that can be used to
This catalytic process — called
run any diesel motor.What many people don't realise is
transesterifi cation — can be done using
that biodiesel is actually good for your car too. Unlike
either chemical catalysts or enzymes
conventional diesel, biodiesel replenishes the lubricity,
such as the one the scientists isolated
reducing engine problems and enhancing the life and
from the microbe found in the brackish
effi ciency of your motor.
water of Pangong Lake, which is shared between India and
Biodiesel 's natural cleaning properties will also help to China. The scientists said they were amazed to see the
clean injectors, fuel lines, pumps and tanks, meaning that lipase has very high conversion effi ciency. They have also
the overall maintenance costs are reduced. demonstrated that the lipase could be recycled several
Indian scientists have found a way to convert carbon-rich times.
waste materials into bio-fuel Using microbes growing in Biodiesel as most of us know refers to a vegetable oil- or
two diverse climatic conditions animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl
A team of researchers from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru (methyl, ethyl, or propyl) esters. Biodiesel is typically
University (JNU) not only discovered two distinctly made by chemically reacting lipids (e.g., vegetable oil,
different species of bacteria from Aravalli marble mines soybean oilanimal fat with an alcohol producing fatty
near Alwar and from the high-altitude Pangong Lake in acid esters. Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard
Ladakh, but also found that they can combine forces diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable
to produce bio-diesel from carbon-containing waste and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines.
materials. The bacterium identifi ed and isolated from Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petrodiesel
the marble rocks in Rajasthan, calledSerratia sp. ISTD04, in any proportions. Biodiesel blends can also be used as
is capable of sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide heating oil.
into organic compounds such as lipids. Meanwhile, Despite the widespread use of petroleum-derived diesel
lipase, which the team isolated from cold-loving fuels, interest in vegetable oils as fuels for internal
bacterium Pseudomonas sp. ISTPL3, can convert these combustion engines was reported in several countries
lipids into bio-diesel.“This lipase is nothing but an enzyme during the 1920s and 1930s and later during World
that works as a catalyst to produce bio-diesel,” said Indu War II. Belgium, France, Italy, the United Kingdom,
Shekhar Thakur, who led the research. “We hope this can Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and China
be a cost-effective way of converting a waste product to were reported to have tested and used vegetable oils as
an eco-friendly fuel,” he said, adding that the team had diesel fuels during this time. Some operational problems
already fi led for patents. were reported due to the high viscosity of vegetable oils

The fi ndings recently appeared in two publications: Journal compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which results in poor
of Energy and Environmental Sustainability and Bioresource atomization of the fuel in the fuel spray and often leads to
Technology . According to Thakur, the microbe isolated deposits and coking of the injectors, combustion chamber
from the marble mines not only sequesters carbon dioxide and valves. Attempts to overcome these problems
implicated in climate change, but also converts it into included heating of the vegetable oil, blending it with
valuable organic compounds. “What is signifi cant is that petroleum-derived diesel fuel or ethanol, pyrolysis and
60 per cent of its body weight is nothing but lipids that can cracking of the oils.

Plastics News | September 2017 20