Engineered Tobacco Plants Up Biofuel Potential

Tuesday, January 05 2010

Researchers from the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University have found a way to increase the oil in tobacco plant leaves, which may be the next step in using the plants for biofuel.

According to Vyacheslav Andrianov, assistant professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical College, tobacco can generate biofuel more efficiently than other agricultural crops.

“Tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that aren’t used in food production,” Andrianov said.

However, most of the oil is typically found in the seeds – which are composed of about 40 percent oil per dry weight. Although the seed oil has been tested for use as fuel for diesel engines, tobacco plants yield a modest amount of seeds, at only about 600 kg of seeds per acre.

“We have found ways to genetically engineer the plants so that their leaves express more oil,” Andrianov explained.