A team of three MSU scientists has found a way to use bacteria in order to make the chemical used to propel Navy Hellfire missiles.

Chemistry professor John Frost, who grew up in Illinois around the time Penicillin was discovered, always has been interested in biosynthesis, the biological way to combine parts of elements to form a whole.

So when the Office of Naval Research's Green Synthesis of Energetic Materials Program suggested research to create the propellant butanetriol without chemicals, the same way that Penicillin is produced, he jumped at the opportunity.

"I've always been interested by the basic concept," he said, adding that the biosynthetic practices are have unlimited possibilities.

Butanetriol currently is made from nitroglycerine through a chemical process, fueling all single-stage rockets in the U.S. military. Single-stage rockets have one fuel tank.

The chemical costs about $40 per pound, and the U.S. military purchases about 15,000 pounds on an annual basis. The new bacteria creation could reduce the cost to $15 per pound and increase demand to 180,000 pounds per year, said Office of Naval Research Program Manager Harold Bright.

"Cost - the whole argument is cost," Bright said. "One has to come up with a product that is cheaper and at least as good."

Frost and chemistry graduate students Mapitso Molefe and Wei Niu worked as a team to create the yellowish chemical by starting with the E. coli K-12 bacteria organism, called the catalyst, and injecting genes from other microbes.

"We can take genes from various organisms and put them together in one common organism," Frost said. "And by doing that, we create a biosynthetic pathway that doesn't exist in nature.

"So, we're not constrained by just one path in one organism, we can mix and match any way we want to."

The bacteria grows in water and eats sugar derived from corn fiber, wood or sugar beets in a process called fermentation.

As the bacteria grows, it creates the butanetriol byproduct. Frost said the catalyst is then removed and the chemical is separated from the water, both relatively easy procedures.

Frost said the new method to create butanetriol also is environmentally friendly because it uses renewable resources. The chemical process currently used not only has nitroglycerine and petroleum - exhaustible elements - but also leaves a trace of byproducts that need to be cleaned.

"With nitroglycerine, you typically have very acidic waste streams that you need to neutralize. The way you neutralize, you get high salts, and that's a problem," Frost said.

Frost said the catalyst byproduct can be treated at a local municipality sewage treatment facility.

Bright said the low environmental cost is an added bonus to the biosynthesis method.

"The idea was to use biotechnology to try to synthesize some of these materials that otherwise are made of petroleum products in very dirty projects that are destructive of the environment," he said. "It is expensive to have to clean them up."

Safety was another problem to be solved by the MSU research team. Frost said, even though butanetriol is easy to make chemically, the nitroglycerine used is unstable and can decompose spontaneously.

"If the butane isn't clean, the final product is contaminated by other byproducts of nitrate and it's not safe," Frost said. "The purpose of the (butanetriol) is to ensure an even burn.

"So it's kind of like a cigarette: If it burns unevenly, it's a problem."

Frost said the butanetriol also is more safe because only a small amount is needed to propel missiles.

Molefe, who concentrated her efforts working with the microbes in the fermenting process, spent hours trying to find the optimum pressure for the best results.

"It's exciting we found a route without a lot of byproducts," she said. "It's definitely one of those things going in where you don't know what to expect, but you use everything you learned in class in the lab."

Molefe said she plans to use the research skills she learned when she later becomes a chemistry instructor.

Niu, on the other hand, has much of her work ahead of her. As the chemistry technician, she continues examining methods to increase the volume and quality of the substance.

John McCracken, chairman of the Department of Chemistry, said Frost's team is the only group in the department researching biosynthesis.

"There are very few nationally who work along the same lines as John does," he said. "There are other people in the field, but we don't have any."

But the unique research is not embraced by the entire MSU community. David Mitchell, a human biology senior and member of Students for Economic Justice, said the university should not team up with the military.

"The fact that we're taking something that already exists and making it more economically efficient to kill people and put it up for sale, I do not feel good about that all," Mitchell said.

Meghan Gilbert can be reached at gilbe109@msu.edu.