Metabolic engineering: enabling technology for biofuels production

The biofuels industry is rapidly growing with the goal of providing a sustainable fuel alternative to petroleum products. However, two challenges persist in limiting current biofuels technologies as a viable alternative: (1) the cost of feedstock and (2) the quality of the fuel. Metabolic engineering shows the potential to overcome these two challenges, enabling the bioconversion of cheaper feedstocks into improved fuels in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Metabolic engineering is the systematic attempt to understand, design, and engineer cellular metabolic networks using a wide range of interdisciplinary tools and strategies. It is rapidly emerging as the enabling technology behind the development of the next generation of biofuels. Several examples of current research demonstrate how metabolic engineering has begun to contribute both novel and creative solutions toward bringing promising biofuel technologies to fruition: production of higher chain alcohols, fermentation of lignocellulosic material, and production of fatty acid derivatives. (C) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.