Manchester team wins major EU biofuels grant

01 Oct 2010 - The European Commission has agreed to fund a project to develop photosynthetic microorganisms that directly convert solar power and carbon dioxide into engine-ready fuel. The project - involving The University of Manchester and eight partner institutions - aims to produce propane, a non-toxic end product that is volatile at room temperature, easily liquefied and, having been used for more than half a century, has an existing distribution infrastructure. Furthermore, the method will not compete for agricultural land and contains no destructive extraction processes. The FP7 collaborative project is "Direct biological conversion of solar energy to volatile hydrocarbon fuels by engineered cyanobacteria" (Acronym: DirectFuel, grant agreement no. The 9-partner project is coordinated by the University of Turku headed by the coordinator, Dr. Patrik Jones (Group Leader, Bioenergy group ), and deputy coordinator, Prof. Eva-Mari Aro ( Molecular Plant Biology grou p). The project is carried out over 4 years starting October 1, 2010, with a total maximum project funding of 3,729,519 EUR. The consortium partners include Dr. Patrik Jones and Prof. Eva-Mari Aro (Univ.