Sterilized tobacco leaves as biomass source for a biorefinery: CAS QIBEBT

https://www.cell.com/the-innovation/fulltext/S2666-6758(24)00125-5

https://www.cas.cn/syky/202408/t20240823_5029609.shtml

A research team led by Zhang Haibo and Fu Chunxiang, researchers at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Wang Qian, a researcher at the Tobacco Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Sang Yup Lee, a professor at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, found that tobacco can be used as an energy crop to achieve efficient and low-carbon utilization of biomass energy and help the sustainable development of biorefining. Compared with traditional biomass raw materials, tobacco leaves have the characteristics of high water solubility, high nitrogen content and low lignocellulose content. After the tobacco leaves are sterilized with water, a liquid with comprehensive and rich nutrition and strong biocompatibility can be obtained. This liquid can be used as a culture medium directly for the cultivation of prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and can also be directly used for the biosynthesis of bio-based fuels and bio-based chemicals.

In addition, tobacco is a field crop with strong stress resistance, salt and alkali tolerance, large biomass, and easy genetic modification, and can adapt well to the environment of marginal land. Planting tobacco on marginal land is expected to produce at least 1.17×1010 Mg of tobacco leaves per year, and theoretically 2.21×1012 L of ethanol. The results of life cycle assessment show that compared with corn straw ethanol, tobacco ethanol has reduced carbon emissions by about 27% and energy consumption by about 26%. Among them, carbon emissions in the bioconversion stage have been reduced by about 76% and energy consumption has been reduced by about 81%. This study directly sterilized tobacco leaves as a culture medium, omitted two steps, improved the biorefining route, reduced carbon footprint, and laid the foundation for achieving carbon negative emissions from bioenergy utilization.

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Ocean University of China in Qingdao publishes Blue Book on marine CO2 absorption

https://spc.jst.go.jp/news/250903/topic_2_03.html

A “China Blue Carbon 2025” Blue Book was released in Qingdao. The Blue Book project was led by the Marine Carbon Neutrality Center of the Ocean University of China, and had invited more than 70 experts and scholars from over 30 institutions in China and abroad to conduct joint special research.

The blue paper predicts that carbon dioxide absorption by China’s blue carbon ecosystems has been on the rise for over the past decade, reaching 500 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035, at which point China will play a central role in global blue carbon contributions. By 2025, China’s total mangrove area will be approximately 303 square kilometers, with a total carbon storage of 6.03 million tons; seagrass beds will be approximately 265 square kilometers, with a total carbon storage of 2.3 million tons; and coastal salt marshes will be approximately 2,980 square kilometers, with a total carbon storage of 91.55 million tons.

The paper also notes that carbon absorption by shellfish and algae farming in China’s coastal waters has increased over the past 20 years. At the same time, China’s marine energy has also developed, with its offshore wind power capacity now number one in the world and its marine primary and secondary industries achieving “carbon minus” status.

According to the president of Ocean University of China, the university aims to achieve synergistic effects on the ecosystem, society, and economy by developing seagrass bed restoration technology, to building a blue carbon resource survey and calculation system, and even developing technologies to track and treat the sources of coastal pollutants.

TELD New Energy opens ultra zero-carbon building in Qingdao

https://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0826/c90000-20357342.html

An ultra zero-carbon building, the headquarters of EV charging pile network operator TELD New Energy, was opened in Qingdao. It is quipped with cutting-edge high-tech solutions to achieve 100 percent green energy substitution.

A lipid-rich baker’s yeast mutant provides high yields of palmitoleic acid

http://english.cas.cn/newsroom/research_news/life/202508/t20250801_1048868.shtml

https://biotechnologyforbiofuels.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13068-025-02677-8

A team at CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) has developed a lipid-rich mutant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for microbial production of palmitoleic acid— a rare omega-7 fatty acid with proven anti-inflammatory and metabolic benefits.

The team used a combined mutagenesis approach—employing zeocin, an antibiotic-based mutagen, and Atmospheric and Room Temperature Plasma (ARTP)—to create a diverse library of yeast mutants. They then deployed FlowRACS, a Raman flow cytometry system, to select live yeast cells with elevated lipid levels by analyzing their intrinsic single-cell Raman spectra, eliminating the need for chemical stains or genetic reporters.

This method identified the mutant strain MU2R48, which achieved a lipid content of 40.26%—a 30.85% increase over its parental strain SC018—while maintaining similar biomass production.

Photo: Raman flow cytometry efficiently identifies lipid-rich Saccharomyces cerevisiae  mutants from a Zeocin–ARTP-induced library. (Image by QIBEBT)

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