Oct 11, 2013 |
Lemons fly as jet fuel of the future
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(Nanowerk News) A University of Queensland researcher hopes to use a chemical found in lemons and other citrus fruits to make clean, renewable jet fuel.
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Dr Claudia Vickers is modifying baker's yeast to produce a synthetic form of the natural chemical limonene.
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Dr Claudia Vickers ... limonene one day could be a renewable, clean aviation fuel.
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“Limonene is a volatile chemical that is best known for contributing to the smell of citrus fruits,” Dr Vickers said.
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“It was first identified in turpentine oil in the late 1800s and is now used as a flavour and fragrance in foods, household cleaning products, and perfumes. It also holds promise as an anti-cancer agent.”
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Dr Vickers said the environmental benefits of using limonene as a fuel were particularly exciting.
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“It might sound unlikely, but limonene one day could be a renewable, clean source of aviation fuel,” she said.
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“Fifty per cent of a 747's weight on take-off is its fuel.
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“If you consider all the planes flying around in the world, that's a lot of fuel – and non-sustainable fossil resource carbon – being emitted in the atmosphere.”
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Limonene extracted from citrus peel had been used successfully as a jet fuel component in demonstration flights in the past.
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“However large-scale limonene production from citrus peel is impractical,” Dr Vickers said.
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“Producing it in yeast should provide a route to much greater yields of limonene which are easier to extract.”
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Limonene yields from the modified yeast are not yet high enough to be commercially viable, but Dr Vickers has plans to further modify the yeast for improved yields.
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The same technology could be used to make a variety of other sustainable products from limonene, including rubbers, plastics, and paints.
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Dr Vickers, from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology last month won a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award for her work with lemons and yeast.
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Her research into synthetic limonene builds on earlier Queensland Government-funded research at the AIBN, which demonstrated that sucrose from sugarcane is one of the best biofuel feedstocks available in the state.
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The feasibility research had the backing of industry partners including Boeing, Virgin Australia, Mackay Sugar, IOR Energy and US biotech company Amyris.
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Dr Vickers said that the research offered an exciting future for Queensland's sugar industry.
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“Currently 80 per cent of Australian sugar is exported. Instead of exporting sugar, we could export value-added products worth much more – or use them to replace non-renewable products in our own domestic market.”
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“As the amount of easily-extractible fossil fuels decreases and the demand for alternatives to petrochemicals increases, these markets will become more and more important.”
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UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Max Lu congratulated Dr Vickers during the award ceremony at Customs House.
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“Chemicals derived from yeast can play a role in future-proofing the Queensland economy by capturing part of the $2 trillion global chemical market,” Professor Lu said.
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“Dr Vickers and her AIBN colleagues are opening doors to new technologies that are likely to have great benefits, environmentally and economically.”
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A United States Department of Agriculture report predicts “green chemicals” produced using biomass will represent 22 per cent of the chemical market by 2025.
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