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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Sewage microbes make a fuel booster

Bacterial enzyme makes the petrol additive toluene.
Jewel Lake, Tilden Park, East Bay Regional Park District, California

Sediment from Jewel Lake in Berkeley, California, contains bacteria that produce the hydrocarbon toluene. Credit: Chickmarkley via Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA-3.0

Researchers sifting through microbes from sewage sludge and lake sediments have identified the first enzyme that produces toluene — a hydrocarbon that is added to petrol to improve engine power.

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Nature 555, 563 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-03669-5

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