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From 2011.igem.org

Alternative Chassis

By synthesizing alkanes in organisms, alkanes can become a useful renewable energy source; CO2 emitted from burning the alkanes are converted to glucose through photosynthesis, and then the glucose can be fed to alkane-synthesizing organisms to restart the cycle. This cycle can be drastically improved if there were fewer steps in the cycle. We explored the possibility of optimizing the alkane biosynthesis system in different micro-organisms, with the idea that perhaps with autotrophic organisms, we do not need to obtain glucose for the reaction.