MSU uses $1.7 million grant to harvest alternative fuel from bacteria

Michigan State University
Published: May 26, 2010

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University bioreactor expert is part of a team tapped to exploit a bacterium’s potential ability to produce an alternative fuel for automobiles.

R. Mark Worden, MSU professor of chemical engineering, is part of a group receiving $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to build a reactor system for Ralstonia eutropha, a bacterium that scientists aim to engineer to metabolize hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce isobutanol, a fuel that can be used as a replacement for gasoline.

Read more