APSU Professor and Students Author Paper on Biofuel Research

Austin Peay State University
2/14/2011

As the demand for biodiesel fuel increases across the globe - it is predicted to reach 12 billion liters this year – a previously unforeseen complication has arisen in the production process. Glycerol, a colorless, odorless liquid, is generated as a byproduct of biodiesel production, and the sheer quantity that is created affects the economic viability of this industry. What should producers do with those billions of unneeded liters of glycerol?

Dr. Sergi Markov, associate professor of biology at Austin Peay State University, has an idea that could help push the alternative fuel race to new levels of possibility. For the last several years, Markov and two of his APSU students – Jared Averitt and Barbara Waldron – have studied the effects of the bacterium Enterobacter aerogenes on glycerol. Turns out, the bacteria converts the liquid into another biofuel, molecular hydrogen.

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