The article I chose to write about is called “Genetically Altered Tobacco Could Smoke Other Non-food Crops as Biofuel”. I found the article on scientific American Genetic Engineering Feed. This article is about tobacco being genetically modified so it can be used as an alternative fuel source. Tobacco is a crop, which is grown in warm climates all over the world. In the United States it is mainly grown in Virginia, Kentucky, and central Tennessee. When grown for energy production instead of smoking, it can create a large amount of inexpensive biomass (plant materials used as fuel) more efficiently than any other agricultural crop.
The tobacco plant produces very oily seeds, which the biofuel oil is extracted from and unfortunately they do not produce large numbers of them. So far scientist at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories have discovered two genes that control oil production, Lec2 (the leafy cotyledon 2 gene) and DGAT (the diacyglycerol acytranderase gene). After genetically modifying Lec2 and DGAT to be over expressed, more oil from the plants seeds and leaves can be accumulated. After being genetically modified the plant went from producing 1.7% - 4% increasing to about 6.8%. In many cases, 20 times the standard amount has been produced.
Dr Viaceslav Andrianov, Ph.D, professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University states “Tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that aren’t used in food production. Tobacco represents an attractive and promising energy plant platform and could also serve as a model for the utilization for other high biomass plants for biofuel production”.
I have become very interested in this idea of using tobacco oil to create ethanol. After researching this topic I found that scientist were able to get 100 miles per one gallon of this fuel. Another great thing about this is that there is an immense amount of food grade protein that can be extracted from the sludge remaining after the ethanol is produced. Fraction-1 protein is a tasteless, odorless, crystalline substance that can be extracted from tobacco, and it is a complete protein. The protein would be equivalent to eating beef and it would basically be free food. The protein would be paid for by the ethanol produced from the tobacco biomass. I believe this is a very good start on the “Go Green” idea.
Josh
This sounds very interesting. The use of tobacco as a biofuel, i agree with you, is a good start on the "Go Greeen" idea. Having a second use for tobacco other than a harmful use in smoking it is very interesting. What i see is more interesting is that you can get a protein out of it.
ReplyDeleteJaleesa S.
Do you know if after extracting this protein for use as fuel, can it then still be used for smoking and not change the effects? Being able to reuse this after the products been extracted would be another step toward the "Go Green" idea.
ReplyDeleteJaleesa S.
I didn't realize that the tobacco could still be used for smoking. That's a very interesting point, Jaleesa. I wonder whether the taste of the tobacco would change, however, because I know that a few of my friends smoke and are very particular on the taste of their cigarettes. It would definitely be beneficial to be able to produce one crop for two separate purposes, though.
ReplyDelete~Rachel Taupier
I wouldn't think that the tobacco could still be used for smoking. I would think that it would be too damaged or at least not taste the same to the smoker if they were using recycled tobacco. I like the "Go Green" idea and if tobacco can be used as a fuel source in the future, then I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteErika
I would have never thought that tobacco could have other uses besides cigarettes and non smokeless forms. To think that the fuel can be used to get a car 100 miles to the gallon and that food grade protein can be processed from the sludge is incredible. This could be a excellent source of protein for vegetarians. It's starting to become evident that tobacco will always be a major cash crop.
ReplyDeleteRoss
I was very interested to find out that there is research to find other sources for ethanol. I have seen other research that made ethanol using a wide variety of items, such as bamboo and paper, and actually showed that corn produced a considerably small amount of ethanol compared to the the amount the others produced. I think it is very important to continue this research to find other alternative fuel resources.
ReplyDelete~Kevin Reynolds
I went to Radford for a poster presentation session. One of the posters was based on what materials produced greater yields of ethanol. He is still working on the experiments but from his data he showed that paper is a leading source when it comes to ethanol production.
ReplyDelete