{"id":53,"date":"2023-10-02T17:53:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T17:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/?p=53"},"modified":"2023-10-31T16:47:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T16:47:08","slug":"biofuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/biofuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking oilseeds\u2019 biofuel potential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Electric cars are the way of the future \u2013 but the need for liquid fuels won\u2019t disappear with jets, semitrucks and heavy equipment driving demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nebraska biochemist Edgar Cahoon is leading an interdisciplinary team representing eight institutions to explore an environmentally friendly, sustainable liquid fuel source. With a five-year, $12.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the team aims to unlock the potential for pennycress and camelina, both oilseeds, to produce renewable fuels, industrial chemicals and other bioproducts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Camelina grows in a greenhouse on UNL’s East Campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Researchers are targeting these oilseeds because they contain the fatty acids necessary for producing biofuels and biomaterials. They\u2019re also resilient and grow on marginal land that can\u2019t support food crops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at this point, the seeds\u2019 makeup isn\u2019t ideal.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make not just more oil per seed, but oil of a more defined chemical structure to make biomaterials with more uniform and consistent properties,\u201d said Cahoon, George W. Holmes Professor of biochemistry and director of the Center for Plant Science Innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re accomplishing this through a unique fusion of fundamental and applied research. For the former, Cahoon\u2019s team is studying a cell part called the plastid, a fatty acid \u201cbiofactory\u201d in oilseeds. They are also exploring cuphea, another oilseed plant, which produces homogeneous fatty acids of an ideal length \u2013 characteristics the team aims to transport to pennycress and camelina.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Ed Cahoon looks over camelina in a greenhouse on UNL’s East Campus. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Researchers are designing synthetic biology tools capable of genetically modifying plants rapidly and predictably. To do this, they are tapping CRISPR gene editing technology.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cahoon\u2019s team is pairing these tools with research findings to produce genetically enhanced camelina and pennycress. They are testing these new lines under diverse environmental conditions and using that data to make improvements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cahoon expects the team\u2019s work to have benefits beyond pennycress and camelina. Their plastid metabolic circuitry tools and research will fuel work by scientists engineering next-generation plant oil feedstocks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe project really pushes the boundaries<\/span> because we\u2019re gaining fundamental knowledge <\/span>while also developing advanced synthetic <\/span>biology tools and then bringing these two pieces together,\u201d<\/span> Cahoon said.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cahoon also collaborates with Tom Clemente, Eugene W. Price Distinguished Professor of biotechnology, to transform sorghum into a sustainable feedstock for renewable diesel and jet fuel. They recently received renewed funding of $4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for this work, which they pursue as members of the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Electric cars are the way of the future \u2013 but the need for liquid fuels won\u2019t disappear with jets, semitrucks and heavy equipment driving demand.  Nebraska biochemist Edgar Cahoon is leading an interdisciplinary team representing eight institutions to explore an environmentally friendly, sustainable liquid fuel source. With a five-year, $12.8 million grant from the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,68,75,70,71,72,73,69],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-we-do-big-things","tag-center-for-advanced-bioenergy-and-bioproducts-innovation","tag-edgar-cahoon","tag-interdisciplinary-research","tag-oilseeds-for-biofuels","tag-plant-genetics","tag-synthetic-biology-tools","tag-tom-clemente","tag-u-s-department-of-energy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}