Professor Susan Leschine, Research Assistant Thomas Warnick, and student Audrey Miller.
A Eureka Moment
Discovery of an ethanol-producing microbe boosts green energy potential
Professor Susan Leschine and her fellow researchers weren’t looking for a clean alternative to fossil fuels, one that can be produced carbon-neutrally, boost rural economies, and bring the nation closer to energy independence, all without consuming the food sources that other biofuels do. But then her team stumbled on the Q Microbe, a tiny bug amazingly efficient at converting cellulose—non-food plant matter—into engine-firing ethanol. For Leschine, a professor of microbiology at UMass Amherst, it was a “eureka moment.”
The Q Microbe is a strain of the soil-dwelling bacterium Clostridium phytofermentans. It first came to light in a soil sample gathered in 2002 by Leschine’s technician, Tom Warnick, as he hiked a few miles east of campus along the Quabbin Reservoir.
“We were doing an experiment for a completely different purpose,” Leschine explains, “but as we grew the bug on higher and higher amounts of cellulose—the main component of plants, and the toughest one to break down—we were shocked to see that it converted the cellulose almost completely into ethanol. When Tom first brought me the data from the experiment he said, ‘You’re not going to believe this.’”
Better yet, the Q Microbe works its magic without the additional enzyme treatments most bioethanol production entail. Moreover, it has an insatiable appetite for all things cellulose: not just the usual switchgrass, wood pulp, and corn-plant waste, but sugar-cane bagasse (the plant matter left over once sugar cane is crushed), pectin, starch, xylan, and other hard-to-digest plant polymers.
“Once we recognized,” Leschine says, “that this work could really benefit the world, that it could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions—well, that’s huge. I felt an obligation.”
That led to the creation of Qteros, a Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company dedicated to developing the technology and production processes to make Q Microbe production of cellulosic ethanol a commercial reality. Leschine serves as chief scientist of the company, which employs 25.
Leschine is quick to acknowledge that her breakthrough was made possible by a culture of collaboration at UMass Amherst. “This didn’t just come out of my lab,” she notes. “It’s the result of interactions with other people on campus interested in biofuels—microbiologists, including experts in genome science; biochemists, who understand the enzymes produced by the microbe; and cellular engineers and process engineers. That sort of collaboration drives basic research and innovation.”