Electrofuels in detail: $2.7M North Carolina State University extremophile project

Biofuels Digest
May 04, 2010 Jim Lane

In North Carolina, ARPA-E awarded $2.7M to North Carolina State University to support research into the creation of biofuels using extremophiles — specifically, Metallosphaera sedula and Pyrococcus furiosus — primitive organisms found in fresh water or saltwater that evolved before photosynthetic organisms, and which are found in hydrothermal environments with temperatures ranging from 75 to 100 degrees Celsius (167 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Most biofuels, such as ethanol and butanol, are created by fermenting sugars produced by plants through photosynthesis. Our project would cut out the middle man by using organisms that utilize carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce biofuels directly,” says Dr. Robert Kelly, the principal investigator under the grant and Alcoa Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and director of the Biotechnology Program at NC State.

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