SNU-POSTECH Joint Research Team Develops a New Microorganism for Eco-friendly and Sustainable Algae Biofuel



▲ SNU Professor Sang Woo Seo,  POSTECH Professor Gyoo Yeol Jung

 
SNU College of Engineering (Dean Kookheon Char) announced on 7^th that the joint research team (Sungwoo Park, Hyun Gyu Lim, Dong Hun Kwak, Sunghwa Woo) led by Professor Sang Woo Seo of SNU Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Professor Gyoo Yeol Jung of POSTECH Department of Chemical Engineering developed a new microorganism that metabolizes marine algae to produce biofuel as a feedback to the depletion of fossil fuels. 
 
As a countermeasure for the depletion of fossil fuels and pollution, the biorefinery technology uses biomass, organic sources of renewable energy, and converts it to energy and useful byproducts. However, the types of biomass suitable for this technology is very limited and conventional biorefinery processes that retrieve energy from starch crops like corns face limitation in meeting the growing demand.
 
Hence, the joint research team looked upon marine algae such as kelp to substitute fossil. Algae, in comparison to land plants, have much faster growth rate and are found abundantly everywhere. Their drawback is that they contain polysaccharides like alginic acid that cannot be digested by the available industrial microorganisms.
 
The team solved this issue by creating a new microorganism, which they named Vibrio sp. dhg., that can quickly digest alginic acids within algae. They also succeeded in developing an optimized gene manipulation technology. With this technology, they artificially altered the metabolic pathway of microorganisms and made the production of ethanol (biofuel), 2,3-butanediol (raw material for plastics), and lycopene (physiologically active substance), and many more from algae possible; thus completing the development of an “artificial microorganism chemical factory” that self-produces various chemical products.
 
One strength of the team’s new artificial microorganism in comparison to other industrial microorganisms like E. coli and yeast is that it accepts a much wider variety of biomass. It also demonstrates a minimum two-times faster growth rate and biomass conversion rate. The new microorganism is expected to significantly raise the efficiency of microorganism fermentation processes that uses glucose.
 
The team stated, “The newly discovered microorganism can quickly digest carbon sources found in marine algae and therefore can be utilized in producing eco-friendly, highly-valuable chemical products. We are expecting that this microorganism can significantly raise the efficiency and economic feasibility of microbial fermentation processes.”
 
The research was published on the latest publication of the prestigious Nature Communications on June 6^th. This research was conducted with the support of the C1 Gas Refinery Project, Global Research Laboratory Program, and Biomedical Technology Development Program (Korea Bio Grand Challenge) of the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Creative-Pioneering Researchers Program of Seoul National University.
 
Title of Article: “Vibrio sp. dhg as a platform for the biorefinery of brown macroalgae”
Publisher: Nature Communications (2019)
Lead Authors: Hyun Gyu Lim, Dong Hun Kwak, Sungwoo Park, Sunghwa Woo
Corresponding Authors: Gyoo Yeol Jung (POSTECH), Sang Woo Seo (SNU)