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Updated: Apr 20, 2026

Biomass Conversion to Produce Hydrocarbon Liquid Fuel Via Hot-vapor Filtered Fast Pyrolysis and Catalytic Hydrotreating
Published on: December 25, 2016
Metabolic engineering for the production of hydrocarbon fuels
Sang Yup Lee1, Hye Mi Kim2, Seungwoo Cheon2
1Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Plus Program), BioProcess Engineering Research Center, and Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, Institute for the BioCentury Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea; Bioinformatics Research Center, KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Biofuels have been attracting increasing attention to provide a solution to the problems of climate change and our dependence on limited fossil oil. During the last decade, metabolic engineering has been performed to develop superior microorganisms for the production of so called advanced biofuels. Among the advanced biofuels, hydrocarbons possess high-energy content and superior fuel properties to other biofuels, and thus have recently been attracting much research interest. Here we review the recent advances in the microbial production of hydrocarbon fuels together with the metabolic engineering strategies employed to develop their production strains. Strategies employed for the production of long-chain and short-chain hydrocarbons derived from fatty acid metabolism along with the isoprenoid-derived hydrocarbons are reviewed. Also, the current limitations and future prospects in hydrocarbon-based biofuel production are discussed.
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