Environmental & Biological Systems Science

Bioenergy

Highlights

ARPA-E—Methylase Project

EESA’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) effort, the Methylase Project, aims to develop biological systems for direct conversion of CO2 or CH4 to liquid transportation fuels. Methane is the main component of gaseous/solid fossil fuel resources, and constitutes one of the largest organic carbon reserves.

Project

ARPA-E Microbial Electrocatalysis (Electrofuels)

As part of the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) program for research on microorganisms that can produce liquid fuels without using petroleum or biomass, a Berkeley Lab-EESA team engineered strains of a common soil bacterium, Ralstonia eutropha, to produce drop-in replacements for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel using only hydrogen and carbon dioxide as inputs.

Project

Biofuels Pathways (JBEI)

Researchers in the Biofuels Pathways Group discover naturally occurring enzymes that, when integrated with metabolic pathways for biofuel precursors (such as fatty acids), enable engineered microbes to synthesize advanced biofuels. A genome-enabled approach is used to study both pure bacterial cultures and natural microbial communities known to produce the biofuels of interest.

Project

Microbial Communities (JBEI)

The Microbial Communities research team prospects for new enzymes that can efficiently deconstruct lignocellulosic biomass. Group members take samples from such places as rain forest floors and composts. From these samples, specific microbes and enzymes are identified, isolated, and manipulated, and a suite of “omics” tools is used for genome-level community characterization.

Project

Souring Systems: Petroleum Microbiology

In this work, EESA scientists are using biology to develop ways of accessing oil and coal that expend less energy and release fewer greenhouse gases. For instance, biological processes might be used to coax oil from below ground or to alter the semi-porous rock that holds oil, making it flow to the surface. Making it easier to access hard-to-reach domestic oil reserves will help ensure that oil remains part of a diverse mix of energy choices.

Project

A Systems-Biology Approach to Energy Flow in H2-Producing Microbial Communities (ESD–LLNL Collaboration)

This research aims to develop an integrated analysis of energy flow in complex microbial communities. We are combining biogeochemical, stable isotope probing, metatranscriptomic and computational approaches, to understand nutrient cycling and biofuel (H2) production production in complex microbial communities. A comprehensive understanding of such communities is needed to develop efficient, industrial-scale processes for microbial H2 production and lignocellulose degradation.

Overview

Research projects in EESA’s Bioenergy Program apply synthetic biology, bioengineering, and microbiology to foster renewable fuel production. Key themes of the Bioenergy Program include: (1) developing novel biofuel pathways in bacteria, (2) exploiting microbial metabolic diversity for biofuel production and lignocellulose deconstruction, and (3) mitigating petroleum souring in reservoirs caused by sulfidogenic microbes. Recently and currently funded projects in the EESA Bioenergy program encompass a wide range of scope, scale, and funding sources. Such projects include: two DOE ARPA-E projects aimed at developing microbiological systems for direct conversion of CO₂ or CH4 to liquid transportation fuels; a project funded by the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) that addresses souring of petroleum reservoirs by sulfidogenic microbes; EESA-led research at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) on designing novel biofuel pathways and exploring microbial diversity for lignocellulosic deconstruction.

Key sponsors of the Bioenergy Program include DOE ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy), DOE Genomic Science Program (JBEI), and the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI). Industry sponsorship of projects in this program is significant and growing (e.g., from Kiverdi, Inc.), as the emphasis is on establishing biotechnology-to-market plans.

Featured Projects

Project

A Systems-Biology Approach to Energy Flow in H2-Producing Microbial Communities (ESD–LLNL Collaboration)

Project

Souring Systems: Petroleum Microbiology

Primary Sponsors

News & Events

Scientists Developing Smart Testbed to Help Improve Access to Important Environmental Data

November 10, 2017

EESA research scientists are working to establish integrated networks of multiple sensors capable of remote telemetry to help bring the data environmental scientists need to their desktops on a more timely basis and to improve data analysis.

Apply for a UC Global Food Initiative Student Fellowship!

September 8, 2015

UC Office of the President has announced the 2nd year of the UC Global Food Initiative (UCGFI) student fellowship! The application period is now open and applications are due on October 2nd. Berkeley Lab’s UCGFI Program is led by Peter Nico of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, Earth Sciences Division. Visit the Berkeley Lab…

Using SFA 2.0 case studies and ASCEM tools and methods to aid international remediation efforts for uranium mining sites

August 16, 2015

At IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Boris Faybishenko (Earth & Environmental Sciences, LBNL) participated in a July 2015 workshop on preparation of an IAEA Technical Report on Remediation of Groundwater and Acid and Metalliferous Drainage (AMD) at Uranium Mining Sites. Boris, who is an IAEA Technical Expert, and colleagues from Australia, Canada, USA and Czech Republic, will…

Coffee berry borer’s gut microbes detoxify caffeine

July 14, 2015

ESD’s Javier Ceja-Navarro (lead author) and Eoin Brodie, with researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Mexico’s El College de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), discovered that coffee berry borers rely on bacteria in their guts to detoxify the massive amounts of caffeine they consume when they eat caffeine-rich coffee beans, their sole source of…

Energy Future: The Gut of an Insect?

May 11, 2015

ESD’s Javier Ceja-Navarro was featured this past week (May 7, 2015) in a video presentation within a Gizmodo article, on the potential of biofuel derived from insects—“a strange new future for agriculture and energy production.”

Williams featured in DOE JGI’s collaborating science videos on Genomes-to-Watershed SFA

April 13, 2015

ESD’s Ken Williams, recently featured in DOE JGI’s collaborating science videos, describes the Genomes-to-Watershed Scientific Focus Area research activities at the Rifle, Colorado.