NEWS OF THE W EEK
BIOFUELS BLOOM IN THE SOUTH
it calls renewable crude oil in a fluid catalytic cracking process similar to that used in petroleum refining. The feedstock will be local southern yellow pine. Meanwhile, UOP has licensed its biomass-refining technology, which it calls Ecofining, to Chicago-based Emerald Biofuels. Unlike the KiOR process, UOP’s catalytic hydroprocessing technology uses natural oils and waste animal fats as feedstock. Emerald plans to build an 85 million-gal-per-year renewable diesel refinery at Dow Chemical’s site in Plaquemine, La. It expects to complete financing later this year and then immediately begin construction. The biofuels wave has also hit Florida, where LS9 will hold the grand opening of its scaled-up demonstration facility on June 12. LS9 uses genetically engineered microbes to convert biobased feedstock to diesel and chemical intermediates. The Okeechobee plant, which will start making biodiesel, contains a 135,000-L fermentation vessel, a jump from earlier production of 50,000-L quantities. The output will provide commercial samples for testing by prospective customers. Using company announcements, Michael J. Ritzenthaler, an analyst at investment bank Piper Jaffray & Co., is tracking the progress of 175 renewable fuels and chemical facilities. “Not all will get built,” he tells C&EN. But the plants from KiOR and LS9 are on his “12 projects to watch in 2012” list. The news that they have completed the facilities is “good for the space and bodes well for the adoption of biofuels,” he says.—
CONSTRUCTION: Firms report progress on projects in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida
B
IOFUELS BASED ON technologies from KiOR,
Honeywell’s UOP division, and LS9 will soon be produced in the southern U.S., according to recent company announcements. Although the technologies, level of completion, and business strategies of the firms differ, analysts say the projects portend a busy summer for the advanced-biofuels industry. KiOR says it has completed construction of its first commercial-scale facility on budget and ahead of schedule. The company is now commissioning the plant, in Columbus, Miss., and expects to begin production this summer. Once it is fully operational, the facility will have an annual capacity of 11 million gal. The company makes what KIOR
KiOR’s first commercial-scale biofuels plant, in Columbus, Miss.
MELODY BOMGARDNER
IDENTIFYING BOTULISM TOXINS
A
NEW WAY TO ANALYZE the deadly protein
botulinum neurotoxin makes it possible to differentiate its numerous subtypes, many of which differ by only a few amino acids (Anal. Chem., DOI: 10.1021/ac3006439). Botulinum toxin induces paralysis and is considered a potential bioterrorism agent. Subtype identification could be particularly important in tracking down the sources of outbreaks of botulism, the illness caused by the toxin. Not only does the toxin have seven serotypes, designated A through G, but those serotypes themselves contain numerous subtypes and variants. Methods based on the polymerase chain reaction can identify the toxin subtypes, but WWW.CEN-ONLIN E .ORG
8
LAGUNA D ESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LI BRARY
A new method identifies close variants of the botulinum toxin, such as the subtype B shown here.
PUBLIC HEALTH: In-gel enzymatic digestions and mass spectrometry refine identification
they require DNA from the toxin-producing organisms, which include Clostridium botulinum. In many cases, only the toxin itself is available. By expanding a traditional analytical method, which involves enzymatically digesting the large protein in a gel and then sequencing the resulting peptides via mass spectrometry, research chemists John R. Barr of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and colleagues were able to get their results. Barr says the traditional method is inefficient because of incomplete digestion, and it often fails to produce enough peptides to generate a thorough sequence identification. Instead, the group used several enzymes in sequence in a single gel to chop the toxin into many more peptides. The sequential digestions in the same gel band allow the team to systematically detect more thoroughly digested protein pieces, yielding dramatically higher sequence coverage, Barr says. Analysis of the resulting peptides by mass spectrometry made it possible for them to accurately identify more than 98% of the protein sequence of a botulinum toxin variant in contaminated carrot juice. The method could be generalized “to identify or distinguish other important protein toxins, or any proteins with variants that have close sequence identities,” notes Luisa W. Cheng, a USDA biologist.—ELIZABETH WILSON
M AY 2 1, 20 12
