Scientists convert plant matter into chemicals
San Francisco, May 20: A team led by an Indian-origin scientist from Sandia National Laboratories in California has demonstrated a new technology based on bio-engineered bacteria that can make it economically feasible to produce chemicals from renewable plant sources.
The technology converts tough plant matter, called lignin, for wider use of the energy source and making it cost competitive.
"For years, we have been researching cost-effective ways to break down lignin and convert it into valuable platform chemicals," Sandia bioengineer Seema Singh said.
"We applied our understanding of natural lignin degraders to E. coli because that bacterium grows fast and can survive harsh industrial processes," she added in the work published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America".
Lignin is the component of plant cell walls that gives them their incredible strength. It is brimming with energy but getting to that energy is so costly and complex that the resulting biofuel can't compete economically with other forms of transportation energy.
Once broken down, lignin has other gifts to give in the form of valuable platform chemicals that can be converted into nylon, plastics, pharmaceuticals and other valuable products.
Singh and her team have solved three problems with turning lignin into platform chemicals: cost, toxicity and speed.
Engineering solutions like these, which overcome toxicity and efficiency issues have the potential to make biofuel production economically viable.
"Now we can work on producing greater quantities of platform chemicals, engineering pathways to new end products, and considering microbial hosts other than E. coli," Singh said.
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Fake notes with 'movie shooting purpose only' written on them send police into tizzy in Sirsi
Sirsi (Karnataka), Apr 8 (PTI): The police in Uttar Kannada went into a tizzy on Tuesday after they found fake currency notes of Rs 500 denomination from a house in Dandeli with 'movie shooting purpose only' written on them.
Based on a tip-off, police searched a rented house at Gandhinagar in Dandeli and confiscated the fake currency notes along with a money counting machine.
Arshad Khan, who is said to be from Goa, was staying as a tenant in the house belonging to Noorjan Jhunjuwadkar, police said.
Police were informed after Jhunjuwadkar noticed that Khan was absent from the house for the past one month.
The fake currency notes had the inscription 'Reverse Bank of India' on them, but did not have the signature of the RBI governor, police said.
The notes were printed on a shining paper with only zeros written in the place of the number, and 'movie shooting purpose only' inscribed on them, police said.
A hunt is on to trace Khan to question him about the seizure, they added.
