The production of renewable energy from biomass, including seeds and their products (oil), is of high importance. The basis of that production may be the cultivation of plants “typical” for a certain region. Lower importance is put on marginal plants, such as willow, topinambur etc. These plants cannot rival plants like rapeseed, potato, corn, cereal, in spite of the fact that they produce a lot of green mass. In many countries of the EU, including Poland, the highest importance is put on the production of biodiesel used as biofuel in self-ignition combustion engines. The availability of locally produced biofuels would cause greater independence from external factors.
1,3-propanediol is used as a monomer in the production of some polymers e.g. polytrimethylene terephthalate used in the production of carpets and textile fibers and in the thermoplastics engineering. However, the traditional chemical synthesis is expensive, generates some toxic intermediates and requires a reduction step under high hydrogen pressure. Biological production of 1,3-propanediol could be an attractive alternative to the traditional chemical methods. Moreover, crude glycerol which is a by-product of biodiesel production, can be used. We constructed a recombinant Escherichia coli strain producing 1,3-propanediol from glycerol by introducing genes of the dha operon from Clostridium butyricum 2CR371.5, a strain from our collection of environmental samples and strains. The E. coli strain produced 3.7 g of 1,3-propanediol per one litre of culture with the yield of 0.3 g per 1 g of glycerol consumed.
The article presents the results of research of a solution to the problem of reducing energy dependency and replacing traditional sources of fuel production to agricultural ones. Nowadays it is very important not only for Ukraine but for most countries of the world. That is why the rapeseed as a row material for biodiesel fuel is a practical alternative being renewable and very productive. The analysis of the current situation of rapeseed growing, its processing and possible trends for the future industry are shown. Factors that can contribute to creating the conditions necessary to support these trends are grounded. Calculation results of rapeseed growing efficiency for bio-energy purposes in agricultural enterprises are displayed. It is proved that the rapeseed growing has the highest efficiency in the variant of its processing for biodiesel.