Other

Ut-battelle, Inc.

James Weifu Lee

Elias Stanley Greenbaum

Thomas George Thundat

Barbara R Evans

Michelle K Kidder

Ida Lee

Archibald C Buchanan, Iii

Douglas H Lowndes

Vladimir I Merkulov

Gyula Eres

Yayi Wei

Rongfu Li

The present invention provides a biosafety-guarded photobiological butanol production technology based on designer transgenic plants, designer algae, designer blue-green algae (cyanobacteria and oxychlorobacteria), or designer plant cells. The designer photosynthetic organisms are created such that the endogenous photobiological regulation mechanism is tamed, and the reducing power (NADPH) and energy (ATP) acquired from the photosynthetic process are used for synthesis of butanol (CHCHCHCHOH) directly from carbon dioxide (CO) and water (HO). The butanol production methods of the present invention completely eliminate the problem of recalcitrant lignocellulosics by bypassing the bottleneck problem of the biomass technology. The photobiological butanol-production technology of the present invention is expected to have a much higher solar-to-butanol energy-conversion efficiency than the current technology and could also help protect the Earth's environment from the dangerous accumulation of COin the atmosphere.

Organisms for photobiological butanol production from carbon dioxide and water

Localized excess protons are created with an open-circuit water electrolysis process using a pair of anode and cathode electrodes for a special excess proton production and proton-utilization system to treat a substrate material plate/film by forming and using an excess protons-substrate-hydroxyl anions capacitor-like system. The technology enables protonation and/or proton-driven oxidation of plate/film and/or membrane materials in a pure water environment. The present invention represents a remarkable clean 'green chemistry' technology that does not require the use of any conventional acid chemicals including nitric and sulfuric acids for the said industrial applications. The application of localized excess protons provides a special energy recycling and renewing technology function to extract latent heat including molecular thermal motion energy at ambient temperature for generating local proton motive force (equivalent to Gibbs free energy) to do useful work such as driving ATP synthesis and proton-driven oxidation of certain substrate metal atoms.

Localized excess protons and methods of making and using same

A hybrid photovoltaic panel-interfaced distillation with and without a hydrophobic microporous membrane distillation process is provided that is capable of utilizing solar waste heat to perform liquid distillation while co-generating solar electricity. Solar waste heat co-generated at a photovoltaic panel is effectively utilized by in situ distillation liquid as an immediate heat sink in thermo contact with the photovoltaic panel, thus providing beneficial cooling of the photovoltaic panel and co-making of distillation products while generating electricity with significant improvement on total-process solar energy utilization efficiency. Its enabled beneficial utilization of waste heat can provide a series of distillation-related products such as: freshwater, sea salts, distilled water, distilled ethanol, hot water, hot steam, saline/brine products, and brine photobiological cultures for production of advanced biofuels and bioproducts, in addition to solar electricity.

Photovoltaic panel-interfaced solar-greenhouse distillation systems

Ozonized biochar compositions and methods for creating advanced hydrophilic biochar materials are provided with higher cation exchange capacity, optimized pH, improved wettability, and free of potential toxic components. These ozonized biochar compositions are used as filtration materials, as biochar soil additives and as carbon sequestration agents to help control climate change for energy and environmental sustainability on Earth.

Ozonized biochar compositions and methods of making and using the same

Designer organisms for photobiological butanol production from carbon dioxide and water

A hybrid photovoltaic panel-interfaced solar-greenhouse distillation technology is disclosed that is capable of utilizing solar waste heat to perform liquid distillation while co-generating solar electricity. Solar waste heat co-generated at a photovoltaic panel is effectively utilized by in situ distillation liquid as an immediate heat sink in thermal contact with the photovoltaic panel, thus providing beneficial cooling of the photovoltaic panel and co-making of distillation products while generating electricity with significant improvement on total-process solar energy utilization efficiency. Use of this invention can provide a series of distillation-related products such as freshwater, distilled water, hot water, hot steam, sea salts, saline/brine products, and/or harvest biofuels and bioproducts such as ethanol from renewable resources while co-generating solar electricity.

Designer Calvin-cycle-channeled and photosynthetic NADPH-enhanced pathways, the associated designer genes and designer transgenic photosynthetic organisms for photobiological production of butanol and related higher alcohols from carbon dioxide and water are provided. The butanol and related higher alcohols include 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, isobutanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, 1-hexanol, 1-octanol, 1-pentanol, 1-heptanol, 3-methyl-1-pentanol, 4-methyl-1-hexanol, 5-methyl-1-heptanol, 4-methyl-1-pentanol, 5-methyl-1-hexanol, and 6-methyl-1-heptanol. The designer photosynthetic organisms such as designer transgenic oxyphotobacteria and algae comprise designer Calvin-cycle-channeled and photosynthetic NADPH-enhanced pathway gene(s) and biosafety-guarding technology for enhanced photobiological production of butanol and related higher alcohols from carbon dioxide and water.

Designer calvin-cycle-channeled production of butanol and related higher alcohols

The present invention provides a photobiological ethanol production and harvesting technology using greenhouse distillation systems with designer photosynthetic organisms, such as designer transgenic oxyphotobacteria. The designer oxyphotobacteria are created such that the endogenous photobiological regulation mechanism is tamed, and the reducing power (NADPH) and energy (ATP) acquired from the photosynthetic process are used for synthesis of ethanol (CHCHOH) directly from carbon dioxide (CO) and water (HO). The designer use of a pair of NADPH-dependent vs. NAD-dependent glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases in the pathway designs offers a special cyclic 'transhydrogenase' redox-shuttle function to convert NADPH to NADH for enhanced photobiological ethanol production. Through combined use of a designer photosynthetic organism with a greenhouse distillation system, the waste solar heat associated with the photobiological ethanol-production process is utilized in harvesting the produced ethanol. In addition to production and harvesting of ethanol, use of the technology can also produce intermediate metabolites and freshwater from seawater.

Designer Oxyphotobacteria and greenhouse distillation for photobiological ethanol production from carbon dioxide and water

The invention is directed to a method for producing an oxygenated biochar material possessing a cation-exchanging property, wherein a biochar source is reacted with one or more oxygenating compounds in such a manner that the biochar source homogeneously acquires oxygen-containing cation-exchanging groups in an incomplete combustion process. The invention is also directed to oxygenated biochar compositions and soil formulations containing the oxygenated biochar material.

Biochar production method and composition therefrom

A hybrid photovoltaic panel-interfaced solar-greenhouse distillation technology is provided that is capable of utilizing solar waste heat to perform liquid distillation while co-generating solar electricity. Solar waste heat co-generated at a photovoltaic panel is effectively utilized by in situ distillation liquid as an immediate heat sink in thermo contact with the photovoltaic panel front surface, thus providing beneficial cooling of the photovoltaic panel and co-making of distillation products while generating electricity with significant improvement on total-process solar energy utilization efficiency. Its enabled beneficial utilization of waste heat can provide a series of distillation-related products such as: freshwater, sea salts, distilled water, hot water, hot steam, saline/brine products, and brine photobiological cultures for production of advanced biofuels and bioproducts, in addition to solar electricity.

A process for enhanced photobiological Hproduction using transgenic alga. The process includes inducing exogenous genes in a transgenic alga by manipulating selected environmental factors. In one embodiment inducing production of an exogenous gene uncouples Hproduction from existing mechanisms that would downregulate Hproduction in the absence of the exogenous gene. In other embodiments inducing an exogenous gene triggers a cascade of metabolic changes that increase Hproduction. In some embodiments the transgenic alga are rendered non-regenerative by inducing exogenous transgenes for proton channel polypeptides that are targeted to specific algal membranes.

Photobiological hydrogen production with switchable photosystem-II designer algae

The present invention provides a revolutionary photosynthetic ethanol production technology based on designer transgenic plants, algae, or plant cells. The designer plants, designer algae, and designer plant cells are created such that the endogenous photosynthesis regulation mechanism is tamed, and the reducing power (NADPH) and energy (ATP) acquired from the photosynthetic water splitting and proton gradient-coupled electron transport process are used for immediate synthesis of ethanol (CHCHOH) directly from carbon dioxide (CO) and water (HO). The ethanol production methods of the present invention completely eliminate the problem of recalcitrant lignocellulosics by bypassing the bottleneck problem of the biomass technology. The photosynthetic ethanol-production technology of the present invention is expected to have a much higher solar-to-ethanol energy-conversion efficiency than the current technology and could also help protect the Earth's environment from the dangerous accumulation of COin the atmosphere.

Designer organisms for photosynthetic production of ethanol from carbon dioxide and water

A designer proton-channel transgenic alga for photobiological hydrogen production that is specifically designed for production of molecular hydrogen (H) through photosynthetic water splitting. The designer transgenic alga includes proton-conductive channels that are expressed to produce such uncoupler proteins in an amount sufficient to increase the algal Hproductivity. In one embodiment the designer proton-channel transgene is a nucleic acid construct () including a PCR forward primer (), an externally inducible promoter (), a transit targeting sequence (), a designer proton-channel encoding sequence (), a transcription and translation terminator (), and a PCR reverse primer (). In various embodiments, the designer proton-channel transgenic algae are used with a gas-separation system () and a gas-products-separation and utilization system () for photobiological Hproduction.

Growing community of inventors

Cockeysville, MD, United States of America

James Weifu Lee