Soon, planes could be flying on fuel from 'fungus'

Soon, you may able to travel on planes that fly on jet fuel from black fungus that is commonly found in decaying leaves, soil and rotting fruit, thanks to a new research.

Washington State University research, led by Professor Birgitte Ahring, used the bacteria Aspergillus carbonarius ITEM 5010 to create long chains of hydrocarbons, the chief component of petroleum products, similar to those in aviation fuels.

The fungus produced the most hydrocarbons on a diet of oatmeal but also created them by eating wheat straw or the non-edible leftovers from corn production.

Using fungi for hydrocarbon and biofuels production is better than other methods because they do the work themselves, bypassing multiple complicated chemical processes required by other biofuel production methods. Fungi also have great potential to create the fuel at low cost, Ahring said.

The researchers are now working to optimize the fungi's hydrocarbon production and improve biochemical pathways through genetic engineering. They have obtained mutants with a higher production level and are working on improving these strains by using gene coding for specific hydrocarbons out of blue green bacteria and algae.

It's the same challenge faced by mold researchers, more than a generation ago, who found they could only produce a tiny amount of their product, Ahring said.

Eventually, the production of their product was optimized and they later came to be known as antibiotics.

Terming the research promising, the researchers have said that they are confident that fuels from fungus would soon be produced commercially.

The research is published in Fungal Biology.