Microbial Isoprenoids as Drop-In Biofuel

Sustainable development is the need of the hour, and it requires renewable energy resources having better combustion performance and compatibility with existing fossil fuel infrastructure. Isoprenoids are most abundant chemicals in plants. The isoprenoid-based biofuels represent a sustainable source for renewable energy in the transportation sector, particularly jet fuels. Terpenes including hemiterpenes, monoterpenes, and sesquiterpenes can be explored as gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel replacement, respectively. However, the production of terpenoid biofuels via sourcing plants is economically unviable to meet the ever-growing market while chemical synthesis route would suffer from environmental concerns. Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology offer promising approach to produce desired terpene fuels in microbes. To date, massive progress has been achieved to promote the terpenes’ bioproduction efficiency of microbial cell factories toward economic viability. This chapter provides a comprehensive landscape in bioproduction of terpene fuels with microbes.