Clean and simple nanocellulose production from algae

The Verge : Nanocellulose is a thin, organic material that has a high tensile strength and is conductive under certain conditions. The material is primarily made from wood pulp in a resource-expensive process. Alternative production methods have used a family of bacteria that secrete nanocellulose, but the extraction process would require significant industrialization. Now, R. Malcolm Brown of the University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues have developed a clean, inexpensive process by transferring the nanocellulose-producing capabilities of the bacteria to blue-green algae . The algae require no special sugars or other extra materials to make nanocellulose, and they create all of their food from water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide. Brown’s team is working to make the algae create larger amounts of the material and to add an electrochromic dye to produce an electronic display.