By tapping into a highly efficient metabolic pathway , scientists at rice university engineered e. coli to convert sugars to butanol 10 times more efficiently than any other organism .
Like ethanol , butanol is an alcohol . That means each of its molecules contains an oxygen atom as well as the carbon and hydrogen found in an alkane .
和乙醇一样,丁醇也属于醇类,这说明每一个丁醇分子包括一个氧原子和直链烷烃里的那种碳原子、氢原子。
In addition to butanol , the bacteria can produce various useful fatty acids that existing processes derive from plant and animal oils .
除了丁醇,它还可以生产从植物和动物油脂出发的多种有用的脂肪酸。
However , the bugs normally used to produce butanol don 't tolerate it well and so produce only small quantities .
不过,一般用于生产丁醇的微生物不耐受丁醇,因而只能生产少量丁醇。
Yeast , for instance , are more tolerant to ethanol and butanol , he says-but e. coli grow faster .
比如,酵母比大肠杆菌更耐受乙醇和丁醇,但是大肠杆菌生长更快。
Butanol , however , has four carbon atoms in its molecules , whereas ethanol has two .
不过,丁醇分子力有四个碳原子而乙醇有两个。
That gives butanol more energy for a given mass and makes it more alkane-like in its properties ; nor does it absorb water as readily as ethanol .
这就使得丁醇在同等质量下更有能量,性质更像烷烃;与乙醇一样,丁醇也很容易吸收水分。
Tulane university scientists discovered a strain of clostridia bacteria , dubbed " tu-103 , " that can devour old newspapers to produce butanol , a substitute for gasoline .
Moreover , the production process for butanol is more efficient than the processes that produce alkanes ; proportionately more of the energy from the feedstock ( various crops for gevo , wheat for bp ) ends up in the final fuel .
Cobalt biofuels , a biobutanol startup based in mountainview , california , uses clostridium bacteria to break down plant matter and convert the resulting sugars into a mix of butanol , acetone , and ethanol .