Team:Costa Rica-TEC-UNA/Project

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== '''Overall project''' ==
== '''Overall project''' ==
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<p align="justify">Cibus 3.0 is a project consisting on the production of biodiesel from dairy industry wastes. Annually, about 675 thousand tons of whey are thrown into rivers. This because at the present time there isn’t a program for reusing this waste, and producers find it difficult to treat them properly because of its chemical composition.</p>
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<p align="justify">Cibus 3.0 takes biodiesel production to a new level using dairy industry wastes. Annually, about 675 thousand tons of whey are thrown into rivers. This because at the present time there isn’t a program for reusing this waste, and producers find it difficult to treat them properly because of its chemical composition.</p>
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<p align="justify">Our idea consists in the modification of two bacteria: ''Rhodococcus opacus'' and ''Escherichia coli'', both maintained in whey based medium. Overexpression of the natural triglycerides (TGA) producing ability of ''R. opacus'' is achieved by inserting an optimized sequence of a DGA acyltransferase gene, constitutively expressed, and an inducible “suicide device” in order to extract them with ease.</p>
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<p align="justify">On the other hand, E. coli is transformed with an optimized sequence of a lipase from ''B. cepacia'' which is secreted to the medium where we extract it continuously and encapsulate it. Now all what it takes to finish the job is adding our encapsulated enzymes to the extracted TGAs and mixing them with some ethanol to obtain our biodiesel!</p>
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<p align="justify">Cibus 3.0 plans to face this problem by using a system of genetically bred bacteria using synthetic biology to transform this waste into biodiesel in a more efficient and scalable way. The improvements on this bacteria’s metabolism allow them to have a better intake of the substrate and its transformation into the desired product (biodiesel). Furthermore this process allows a better harvest of the produced biofuel compared to current systems, and at the end the bacteria bursts, releasing biodiesel in the medium. In the future, Cibus 3.0 expects to transform more bacteria in order to use other industrial and agricultural wastes as raw material for biodiesel production.</p>
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== Project Details==
== Project Details==

Revision as of 07:55, 26 September 2012


Overall project

Vaca.jpg

Cibus 3.0 takes biodiesel production to a new level using dairy industry wastes. Annually, about 675 thousand tons of whey are thrown into rivers. This because at the present time there isn’t a program for reusing this waste, and producers find it difficult to treat them properly because of its chemical composition.

Our idea consists in the modification of two bacteria: Rhodococcus opacus and Escherichia coli, both maintained in whey based medium. Overexpression of the natural triglycerides (TGA) producing ability of R. opacus is achieved by inserting an optimized sequence of a DGA acyltransferase gene, constitutively expressed, and an inducible “suicide device” in order to extract them with ease.

On the other hand, E. coli is transformed with an optimized sequence of a lipase from B. cepacia which is secreted to the medium where we extract it continuously and encapsulate it. Now all what it takes to finish the job is adding our encapsulated enzymes to the extracted TGAs and mixing them with some ethanol to obtain our biodiesel!

Project Details

The Experiments

Results

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