Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been extensively investigated as a photoanode for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, because of its favorable band-edge positions, strong absorption, superior chemical stability, photo-corrosion resistance, and associated low cost; however, reported photocurrent densities and photoconversion efficiencies of TiO2 photoanodes are substantially lower than projected.  UC Santa Cruz researchers have developed a strategy which demonstrates that hydrogen treatment can significantly enhanced the photoconversion efficiency of TiO2 materials by improving their donor density and electrical conductivity. (more...)

In light of the ongoing shortage of oil and increasing cost of petroleum, the use of renewable plant biomass for the production of biofuels has become an attractive alternative. However, for biofuels to have an economic and environmental impact, the biomass feedstock from which biofuels are produced must be widely available at low cost and incur no additional negative environmental impact. Lignocellulosic biomass, the inedible material found in many plants including switchgrass, wheatstraw, pine and corn stover, is an inexpensive and abundant feedstock, with over 40 million tons produced every year. However, the inability to efficiently harness and convert the carbohydrates from lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels has hindered its use. Many currently used industrial methods require the lignocellulosic biomass to be thermochemically pretreated and then hydrolyzed using enzymes produced by Trichoderma reesei. While high yields can be obtained using this approach, it is both costly and inefficient.  Therefore, researchers have turned to a new method whereby a single microbe is able to convert lignocellulose into valuable end products such as ethanol, a process collectively referred to as consolidated bioprocessor (CBP).  At present, only a few CBP microbes have been developed, none of which are widely used in industry. Bacillus subtilis is a promising CBP that is used to produce a range of compounds including proteins, antibiotics and insecticides. However, like many other CBP microbes, native strains of B. subtilis cannot efficiently degrade lignocellulose. Therefore, due to the burgeoning use of lignocellulose, there is an urgent need to develop a microorganism to efficiently degrade lignocellulose feedstocks for the production of biofuels. (more...)

Research for a novel endo-hydrogenase enzyme in purple non-sulfur phonsynthethic bacteria able to produce and output hydrogen gas at sustained high rates when coupled to photophosphorylation in phototrophic cultures has been long sought after. Attempts have been made to genetically reconfigure the gene-set encoding of endo-hydrogenase; whereby enhancing endo-hydrogenase activity for in vivo hydrogen gas production. Distinguishable results from research on direct in vivo conversion of light energy into H2 gas, as a biofuel, has recently come to light at UCSC. (more...)

A novel light absorbing conjugated polymeric electron donor material for use in organic photovoltaic devices. (more...)

With the world's oil supply shrinking, there is a need for better methods of producing ethanol from biomass. However, this process is generally hindered by its requirement that the main component of biomass, lignocellulose, be degraded into fermentable sugars. Currently, the most commonly used methods involve pre-treating biomass with chemicals and heat, and then degrading them into simple sugars by exposing it to a variety of purified cellulases. However, this method is cost inefficient. Several groups, on the other hand, have begun to develop microorganisms that can degrade cellulose. A few groups have engineered some yeast strains to display cellulolytic complexes on its surface. These strains have enhanced degradative activity against cellulose and are capable of ethanol production. However, the degradation rates are still lower than observed for natural cellulolytic organisms. Thus, there is a need for a cost efficient and faster method of breaking down biomass for industrial purposes. (more...)

Pamela Ronald and a team of researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered plants with inhibited expression of snl6, a cinnamoyl-CoA reductase-like (CCR-like) gene.  As a result, the JBEI plants have reduced lignin or phenolic compounds compared to wild type plants and yield an increase of up to 10 percent of sugar extracted.  The JBEI technology can be applied to a wide range of plants including rice, miscanthus, switchgrass, sugarcane, sugar beet, sorghum and corn, among others. In addition, the JBEI-engineered plants are developmentally normal. Until now, plants with decreased lignin content have exhibited defects such as reduced size or sturdiness that made them unsuitable biofuel feedstocks. Lignin significantly hinders the extraction of sugars from plant cells walls for saccharification, a key step in the production of biofuels from cellulosic biomass. The JBEI-engineered plants present less lignin or phenolics than control plants and lack the defects of other engineered species making them a superior biofuel feedstock. The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI, www.jbei.org) is a scientific partnership led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and including the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  JBEI's primary scientific mission is to advance the development of the next generation of biofuels. (more...)

Three genes in rice have demonstrated a significant role in plant innate immunity.  Two genes confer improved pathogen resistance when silenced (demonstrated by challenge experiments using Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae.)  One gene confers improved pathogen resistance when overexpressed (demonstrated by challenge experiments with Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae).   Further, researchers identified ten additional novel regulators of stress tolerance in rice, including three from protein classes not previously known to function in stress responses.  Several lines of evidence suggest cross-talk between biotic and abiotic stress responses. (more...)

It is currently unknown how plants sense the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. Previously, no CO2 sensors have been identified in plants. Knowledge of how atmospheric CO2 is perceived could be used to manipulate plant CO2 responses so that the carbon and water use efficiency during plant growth could be optimized. The water use efficiency defines how well a plant can balance the loss of water through stomata with the net CO2 uptake for photosynthesis, and hence biomass accumulation. (more...)

Biochemical platform for fuels and chemicals production from cellulosic biomass (more...)

Methyl halides are reactive one-carbon compounds from which a wide variety of commercially important organic products can be produced. Industrial production of methyl halides has been carried out using chemical methods that often consume high amounts of energy, and involve conditions of high temperature and pressure. Many plants and fungi produce methyl halides and release them into the environment. These organisms contain methyl halide transferases that combine a chlorine, bromine or iodine ion with a methyl group of the metabolite S-adenosylmethionine to form the methyl halide and S-adenosyl homocysteine. The harnessing of this process can lead to more efficient ways of producing biofuels.   UCSF investigators have developed a method to produce and/or overproduce methyl halides, to be used as a biofuel precursor, in a variety of plants and microorganisms. This process takes advantage of pathways that are common across all organisms and can be carried out on a commercial scale, for example in a reactor. (more...)

Green microalgae of the genus Botryoccene synthesize long-chain terpenoid hydrocarbons that can amount to as much as 30-40% of the dry biomass weight. These hydrocarbons can serve as renewable biofuels, feedstock for synthetic chemicals, feedstock in drug manufacturing, and in cosmetics as an alternative to squalene. However, existing methods of extracting these hydrocarbons aren't economically viable. To address this opportunity, scientists at UC Berkeley have developed a more efficient method for extracting and quantifying extracellular terpenoid hydrocarbons from terprnoid-producing and secreting Botryoccene microalgae. (more...)

A novel peptide ligation process to prepare native peptide bonds under mild, aqueous, reagent-free conditions, with water and carbon dioxide as the only by-products. (more...)