Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Barriers and opportunities in bio-based production of hydrocarbons

Nature Energy volume 3, pages 925–935 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Global climate change caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has caused concerns regarding the continued reliance on fossil fuels as our primary energy source. Hydrocarbons produced from biomass using microbial fermentation processes can serve as high-quality liquid transportation fuels and may contribute to a reduction in GHG emissions. Here, we discuss the barriers and opportunities for bio-based production of hydrocarbons to be used as diesel and jet fuels and review recent advances in engineering microbes for production of these chemicals. There are two main challenges associated with establishing bio-based hydrocarbon production from cheap feedstocks; lowering the cost of developing efficient and robust microbial cell factories and establishing more efficient routes for biomass hydrolysis to sugars for fermentation. We discuss how to develop novel systems and synthetic biology tools that can enable faster and cheaper construction of microbial cell factories and thereby address the first challenge, as well as recent advances in biomass processing that will likely lead to overcoming the second challenge in the near future.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The biorefinery concept for biofuel production from sunlight and single-carbon compounds or biomass.
Fig. 2: Metabolic pathways for production of hydrocarbons in microorganisms.
Fig. 3: Construction of microbial cell factories for overproduction of terpene-based biofuels with relieved toxicity.
Fig. 4: Stoichiometric biosynthesis of farnesene from hexose, CO2 or methanol.
Fig. 5: Engineering cell factories for hydrocarbon biosynthesis from methanol.
Fig. 6: Development of a microbial cell factory for hydrocarbon production from raw materials.
Fig. 7: Room for improvement of TRY metrics.

References

  1. Use of Energy in the United States Explained: Energy Use for Transportation (US Energy Information and Administration, 2016); https://go.nature.com/2sH2qsJ

  2. Liao, J. C., Mi, L., Pontrelli, S. & Luo, S. Fuelling the future: microbial engineering for the production of sustainable biofuels. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 14, 288–304 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Lynd, L. R. The grand challenge of cellulosic biofuels. Nat. Biotechnol. 35, 912–915 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  4. ICAO Environmental Report 2016: Aviation and Environmental Outlook 38–65 (ICAO, 2016).

  5. Moore, R. H. et al. Biofuel blending reduces particle emissions from aircraft engines at cruise conditions. Nature 543, 411–415 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Kocar, G. & Civas, N. An overview of biofuels from energy crops: Current status and future prospects. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 28, 900–916 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Peralta-Yahya, P. P., Zhang, F., del Cardayre, S. B. & Keasling, J. D. Microbial engineering for the production of advanced biofuels. Nature 488, 320–328 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Lee, S. Y., Kim, H. M. & Cheon, S. Metabolic engineering for the production of hydrocarbon fuels. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 33, 15–22 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fellet, M. Aviation industry hopes to cut emissions with jet biofuel. Chem. Eng. News 94, 16–18 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gevo’s alcohol-to-jet fuel meets approved ASTM standard. Biomass Magazine http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/13078/gevoundefineds-alcohol-to-jet-fuel-meets-approved-astm-standard (2016).

  11. Caspeta, L. & Nielsen, J. Economic and environmental impacts of microbial biodiesel. Nat. Biotechnol. 31, 789–793 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Technology Roadmap: Biofuels for Transport (International Energy Agency, 2011).

  13. Nielsen, J. & Keasling, J. D. Engineering cellular metabolism. Cell 164, 1185–1197 (2016). This review comprehensively discusses the challenges and strategies in constructing microbial cell factories.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Whited, G. M. et al. Development of a gas-phase bioprocess for isoprene-monomer production using metabolic pathway engineering. Ind. Biotechnol. 6, 152–163 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Lv, X. M. et al. Dual regulation of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial acetyl-CoA utilization for improved isoprene production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nat. Commun. 7, 12851 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Gao, X. et al. Engineering the methylerythritol phosphate pathway in cyanobacteria for photosynthetic isoprene production from CO2. Energy Environ. Sci. 9, 1400–1411 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Davies, F. K., Work, V. H., Beliaev, A. S. & Posewitz, M. C. Engineering limonene and bisabolene production in wild type and a glycogen-deficient mutant of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 2, 21 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Zebec, Z. et al. Towards synthesis of monoterpenes and derivatives using synthetic biology. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 34, 37–43 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Tashiro, M. et al. Bacterial production of pinene by a laboratory-evolved pinene-synthase. ACS Synth. Biol. 5, 1011–1120 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Zhang, H. et al. Microbial production of sabinene--a new terpene-based precursor of advanced biofuel. Microb. Cell Fact. 13, 20 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Alonso-Gutierrez, J. et al. Principal component analysis of proteomics (PCAP) as a tool to direct metabolic engineering. Metab. Eng. 28, 123–133 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Cao, X. et al. Metabolic engineering of oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica for limonene overproduction. Biotechnol. Biofuels 9, 214 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ignea, C., Pontini, M., Maffei, M. E., Makris, A. M. & Kampranis, S. C. Engineering monoterpene production in yeast using a synthetic dominant negative geranyl diphosphate synthase. ACS Synth. Biol. 3, 298–306 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Meadows, A. L. et al. Rewriting yeast central carbon metabolism for industrial isoprenoid production. Nature 537, 694–697 (2016). This work rewired the yeast central metabolism by using four non-native metabolic reactions for improved cytosolic precursor acetyl-CoA supply, reduced ATP requirement, reduced CO 2 emissions and improved pathway redox balance, which had a 25% higher farnesene yield on glucose (130 g l –1 , 0.173 g per g glucose) and 75% less oxygen consumption.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Paddon, C. J. et al. High-level semi-synthetic production of the potent antimalarial artemisinin. Nature 496, 528–532 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Peralta-Yahya, P. P. et al. Identification and microbial production of a terpene-based advanced biofuel. Nat. Commun. 2, 483 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Pfleger, B. F., Gossing, M. & Nielsen, J. Metabolic engineering strategies for microbial synthesis of oleochemicals. Metab. Eng. 29, 1–11 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Schirmer, A., Rude, M. A., Li, X., Popova, E. & del Cardayre, S. B. Microbial biosynthesis of alkanes. Science 329, 559–562 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Bernard, A. et al. Reconstitution of plant alkane biosynthesis in yeast demonstrates that Arabidopsis ECERIFERUM1 and ECERIFERUM3 are core components of a very-long-chain alkane synthesis complex. Plant Cell 24, 3106–3118 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Rui, Z., Harris, N. C., Zhu, X. J., Huang, W. & Zhang, W. J. Discovery of a family of desaturase-like enzymes for 1-alkene biosynthesis. ACS Catal. 5, 7091–7094 (2015). This study discovered efficient membrane-bound desaturase-like enzymes for long-chain 1-alkene biosynthesis from fatty acids.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Rui, Z. et al. Microbial biosynthesis of medium-chain 1-alkenes by a nonheme iron oxidase. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 18237–18242 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Rude, M. A. et al. Terminal olefin (1-alkene) biosynthesis by a novel P450 fatty acid decarboxylase from Jeotgalicoccus species. Appl. Environ. Microb. 77, 1718–1727 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Mendez-Perez, D., Begemann, M. B. & Pfleger, B. F. Modular synthase-encoding gene involved in alpha-olefin biosynthesis in Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7002. Appl. Environ. Microb. 77, 4264–4267 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Choi, Y. J. & Lee, S. Y. Microbial production of short-chain alkanes. Nature 502, 571–574 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Kallio, P., Pasztor, A., Thiel, K., Akhtar, M. K. & Jones, P. R. An engineered pathway for the biosynthesis of renewable propane. Nat. Commun. 5, 4731 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Sheppard, M. J., Kunjapur, A. M. & Prather, K. L. Modular and selective biosynthesis of gasoline-range alkanes. Metab. Eng. 33, 28–40 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Andre, C., Kim, S. W., Yu, X. H. & Shanklin, J. Fusing catalase to an alkane-producing enzyme maintains enzymatic activity by converting the inhibitory byproduct H2O2 to the cosubstrate O2. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 3191–3196 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Rodriguez, G. M. & Atsumi, S. Toward aldehyde and alkane production by removing aldehyde reductase activity in Escherichia coli. Metab. Eng. 25, 227–237 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Rahmana, Z. et al. Enhanced production of n-alkanes in Escherichia coli by spatial organization of biosynthetic pathway enzymes. J. Biotechnol. 192, 187–191 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Sachdeva, G., Garg, A., Godding, D., Way, J. C. & Silver, P. A. In vivo co-localization of enzymes on RNA scaffolds increases metabolic production in a geometrically dependent manner. Nucleic Acids Res. 42, 9493–9503 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  41. Cao, Y. X. et al. Heterologous biosynthesis and manipulation of alkanes in Escherichia coli. Metab. Eng. 38, 19–28 (2016). This work used a multi-modular optimization approach to alkane production in E. coli by balancing the fatty aldehyde node and engineering fatty acid metabolism and electron transfer system, resulting in 1.31g l –1 alkane production in fed-batch fermentation by using glycerol as carbon source.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Liu, Y. et al. Hydrogen peroxide-independent production of alpha-alkenes by OleTJE P450 fatty acid decarboxylase. Biotechnol. Biofuels 7, 28 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Buijs, N. A., Zhou, Y. J., Siewers, V. & Nielsen, J. Long-chain alkane production by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 112, 1275–1279 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Zhou, Y. J. et al. Production of fatty acid-derived oleochemicals and biofuels by synthetic yeast cell factories. Nat. Commun. 7, 11709 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  45. Zhou, Y. J. et al. Harnessing yeast peroxisomes for biosynthesis of fatty-acid-derived biofuels and chemicals with relieved side-pathway competition. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138, 15368–15377 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Chen, B., Lee, D. Y. & Chang, M. W. Combinatorial metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for terminal alkene production. Metab. Eng. 31, 53–61 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Zhou, Y. J., Hu, Y., Zhu, Z., Siewers, V. & Nielsen, J. Engineering 1-alkene biosynthesis and secretion by dynamic regulation in yeast. ACS Synth. Biol. 7, 584–590 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  48. Zhu, Z. et al. Expanding the product portfolio of fungal type I fatty acid synthases. Nat. Chem. Biol. 13, 360–362 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  49. Gajewski, J. et al. Engineering fatty acid synthases for directed polyketide production. Nat. Chem. Biol. 13, 363–365 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Zhu, Z. et al. Enabling the synthesis of medium chain alkanes and 1-alkenes in yeast. Metab. Eng. 44, 81–88 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  51. Blazeck, J., Liu, L., Knight, R. & Alper, H. S. Heterologous production of pentane in the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica. J. Biotechnol. 165, 184–194 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  52. Xu, P., Qiao, K. J., Ahn, W. S. & Stephanopoulos, G. Engineering Yarrowia lipolytica as a platform for synthesis of drop-in transportation fuels and oleochemicals. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 10848–10853 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Angermayr, S. A., Gorchs Rovira, A. & Hellingwerf, K. J. Metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria for the synthesis of commodity products. Trends Biotechnol. 33, 352–361 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  54. Wang, W., Liu, X. & Lu, X. Engineering cyanobacteria to improve photosynthetic production of alka(e)nes. Biotechnol. Biofuels. 6, 69 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  55. Liu, Q. et al. Engineering an iterative polyketide pathway in Escherichia coli results in single-form alkene and alkane overproduction. Metab. Eng. 28, 82–90 (2015). This paper shows that the polyketide pathway can be engineered for biosynthesis of alkenes.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Fortman, J. L., Katz, L., Steen, E. J. & Keasling, J. D. Producing alpha-olefins using polyketide synthases. US patent 2016/0068827 A1 (2016).

  57. Yuzawa, S., Keasling, J. D. & Katz, L. Bio-based production of fuels and industrial chemicals by repurposing antibiotic-producing type I modular polyketide synthases: opportunities and challenges. J. Antibiot. 70, 378–385 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Sikkema, J., de Bont, J. A. & Poolman, B. Mechanisms of membrane toxicity of hydrocarbons. Microbiol. Rev. 59, 201–222 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  59. Gong, Z., Nielsen, J. & Zhou, Y. J. Engineering robustness of microbial cell factories. Biotechnol. J. 12, 201700014 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  60. Brennan, T. C. R., Turner, C. D., Kromer, J. O. & Nielsen, L. K. Alleviating monoterpene toxicity using a two-phase extractive fermentation for the bioproduction of jet fuel mixtures in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 109, 2513–2522 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  61. Clomburg, J. M., Crumbley, A. M. & Gonzalez, R. Industrial biomanufacturing: The future of chemical production. Science 355, aag0804 (2017). This review compares the biomanufacturing and chemical process in regard to economies of unit number, investment scale and financial risk, and proposes that biomanufacturing could play an important role in conversion of single-carbon feedstocks to chemicals and biofuels with rapid adaptation to new and changing markets.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Schrader, J. et al. Methanol-based industrial biotechnology: current status and future perspectives of methylotrophic bacteria. Trends Biotechnol. 27, 107–115 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  63. Shih, P. M., Zarzycki, J., Niyogi, K. K. & Kerfeld, C. A. Introduction of a synthetic CO2-fixing photorespiratory bypass into a cyanobacterium. J. Biol. Chem. 289, 9493–9500 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  64. Lin, M. T., Occhialini, A., Andralojc, P. J., Parry, M. A. J. & Hanson, M. R. A faster Rubisco with potential to increase photosynthesis in crops. Nature 513, 547–550 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  65. Gong, F. et al. Quantitative analysis of an engineered CO2-fixing Escherichia coli reveals great potential of heterotrophic CO2 fixation. Biotechnol. Biofuels 8, 86 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  66. Guadalupe-Medina, V. et al. Carbon dioxide fixation by Calvin-Cycle enzymes improves ethanol yield in yeast. Biotechnol. Biofuels 6, 125 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  67. Antonovsky, N. et al. Sugar Synthesis from CO2 in Escherichia coli. Cell 166, 115–125 (2016). A non-native Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle was functionally constructed in E. coli and enabled biomass synthesis from CO 2 directly with the supply of ATP and reducing power.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Schwander, T., Schada von Borzyskowski, L., Burgener, S., Cortina, N. S. & Erb, T. J. A synthetic pathway for the fixation of carbon dioxide in vitro. Science 354, 900–904 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Sakimoto, K. K., Wong, A. B. & Yang, P. Self-photosensitization of nonphotosynthetic bacteria for solar-to-chemical production. Science 351, 74–77 (2016). A biological–inorganic hybrid, combining inorganic semiconductors and non-photosynthetic bacterium, was developed for highly efficient light harvesting and CO 2 fixation toward acetate production.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Li, H. et al. Integrated electromicrobial conversion of CO2 to higher alcohols. Science 335, 1596 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  71. Romero, E., Novoderezhkin, V. I. & van Grondelle, R. Quantum design of photosynthesis for bio-inspired solar-energy conversion. Nature 543, 355–365 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  72. Haynes, C. A. & Gonzalez, R. Rethinking biological activation of methane and conversion to liquid fuels. Nat. Chem. Biol. 10, 331–339 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  73. Whitaker, W. B., Sandoval, N. R., Bennett, R. K., Fast, A. G. & Papoutsakis, E. T. Synthetic methylotrophy: engineering the production of biofuels and chemicals based on the biology of aerobic methanol utilization. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 33, 165–175 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  74. Muller, J. E. et al. Engineering Escherichia coli for methanol conversion. Metab. Eng. 28, 190–201 (2015). A heterologous methanol utilization pathway was constructed in E. coli , which enabled up to 40% incorporation of methanol into central metabolites.

    Google Scholar 

  75. Whitaker, W. B. et al. Engineering the biological conversion of methanol to specialty chemicals in Escherichia coli. Metab. Eng. 39, 49–59 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  76. Sonntag, F. et al. Engineering Methylobacterium extorquens for de novo synthesis of the sesquiterpenoid alpha-humulene from methanol. Metab. Eng. 32, 82–94 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  77. Liang, W. F. et al. Biosensor-assisted transcriptional regulator engineering for Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 to improve mevalonate synthesis by increasing the acetyl-CoA supply. Metab. Eng. 39, 159–168 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  78. Bhataya, A., Schmidt-Dannert, C. & Lee, P. C. Metabolic engineering of Pichia pastoris X-33 for lycopene production. Process Biochem. 44, 1095–1102 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  79. Wriessnegger, T. et al. Production of the sesquiterpenoid (+)-nootkatone by metabolic engineering of Pichia pastoris. Metab. Eng. 24, 18–29 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  80. Lawton, T. J. & Rosenzweig, A. C. Methane-oxidizing enzymes: An upstream problem in biological gas-to-liquids conversion. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138, 9327–9340 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  81. Conrado, R. J. & Gonzalez, R. Envisioning the bioconversion of methane to liquid fuels. Science 343, 621–623 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  82. Kalyuzhnaya, M. G., Puri, A. W. & Lidstrom, M. E. Metabolic engineering in methanotrophic bacteria. Metab. Eng. 29, 142–152 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  83. Coleman, W. J. et al. Biological conversion of multi-carbon compounds from methane. US patent 20160160243A1 (2016).

  84. Intrexon’s industrial products division achieves bioconversion of methane to farnesene. Intrexon https://investors.dna.com/2014-06-30-Intrexons-Industrial-Products-Division-Achieves-Bioconversion-of-Methane-to-Farnesene (2014).

  85. Soo, V. W. et al. Reversing methanogenesis to capture methane for liquid biofuel precursors. Microb. Cell Fact. 15, 11 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  86. Balasubramanian, R. et al. Oxidation of methane by a biological dicopper centre. Nature 465, 115–119 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  87. Hu, P., Rismani-Yazdi, H. & Stephanopoulos, G. Anaerobic CO2 fixation by the acetogenic bacterium Moorella thermoacetica. AICHE J. 59, 3176–3183 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  88. Lynd, L. R. et al. How biotech can transform biofuels. Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 169–172 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  89. Nielsen, J. Yeast cell factories on the horizon. Science 349, 1050–1051 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  90. Krivoruchko, A., Zhang, Y., Siewers, V., Chen, Y. & Nielsen, J. Microbial acetyl-CoA metabolism and metabolic engineering. Metab. Eng. 28, 28–42 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  91. Levering, J., Broddrick, J. & Zengler, K. Engineering of oleaginous organisms for lipid production. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 36, 32–39 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  92. Lee, S. Y. & Kim, H. U. Systems strategies for developing industrial microbial strains. Nat. Biotechnol. 33, 1061–1072 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  93. Kerkhoven, E. J., Lahtvee, P. J. & Nielsen, J. Applications of computational modeling in metabolic engineering of yeast. FEMS Yeast Res. 15, 1–13 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  94. Brunk, E. et al. Characterizing strain variation in engineered E. coli using a multi-omics-based workflow. Cell Syst. 2, 335–346 (2016). A multi-omics workflow was applied to elucidate engineered cell factories and identify potential engineering targets for improved production of interesting metabolites.

    Google Scholar 

  95. Dragosits, M. & Mattanovich, D. Adaptive laboratory evolution - principles and applications for biotechnology. Microb. Cell Fact. 12, 64 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  96. Caspeta, L. et al. Altered sterol composition renders yeast thermotolerant. Science 346, 75–78 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  97. Fletcher, E. et al. Evolutionary engineering reveals divergent paths when yeast is adapted to different acidic environments. Metab. Eng. 39, 19–28 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  98. Mi, L. et al. Efficient production of free fatty acids from ionic liquid-based acid- or enzyme-catalyzed bamboo hydrolysate. J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 44, 419–430 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  99. Agbor, V. B., Cicek, N., Sparling, R., Berlin, A. & Levin, D. B. Biomass pretreatment: fundamentals toward application. Biotechnol. Adv. 29, 675–685 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  100. Anbarasan, P. et al. Integration of chemical catalysis with extractive fermentation to produce fuels. Nature 491, 235–239 (2012). This paper shows how chemical and biological processes work coordinatively for synthesizing hydrocarbon biofuels from renewable sources .

    Google Scholar 

  101. Sanchez, B. J. et al. Improving the phenotype predictions of a yeast genome-scale metabolic model by incorporating enzymatic constraints. Mol. Syst. Biol. 13, 935 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  102. Wang, H. et al. RAVEN 2.0: a versatile platform for metabolic network reconstruction and a case study on Streptomyces coelicolor. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.1101/321067 (2018).

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding from National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31700082) and DMTO research grant from Dalian Institute of Chemicals Physics, CAS (grant no. DICP DMTO201701) (to Y.J.Z.); the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Genomic Science program (Award number DE-SC0008744) and Horizon2020 via the CHASSY project (grant no. 720824) (to J.N.) and Åforsk Foundation (to E.J.K.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China

    Yongjin J. Zhou

  2. Division of Biotechnology, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China

    Yongjin J. Zhou

  3. Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Yongjin J. Zhou, Eduard J. Kerkhoven & Jens Nielsen

  4. Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

    Jens Nielsen

  5. Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China

    Jens Nielsen

Authors
  1. Yongjin J. Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eduard J. Kerkhoven
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jens Nielsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jens Nielsen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhou, Y.J., Kerkhoven, E.J. & Nielsen, J. Barriers and opportunities in bio-based production of hydrocarbons. Nat Energy 3, 925–935 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0197-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0197-x

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research