New source for biofuels discovered

www.physorg.com ^ | 04/23/2008 | Source: University of Texas at Austin

[Red Badger]

Left: Two rod-shaped, wild type cyanobacteria. Note the conspicuous absence of any cellulose or sugars on the surface of these cells. Right: A genetically altered cyanobacterium that produced highly visible cellulose (marked by cellulase coupled with an electron dense gold marker). Credit: Brown and Nobles, the University of Texas at Austin

A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation’s transportation fuel if production can be scaled up.

Along with cellulose, the cyanobacteria developed by Professor R. Malcolm Brown Jr. and Dr. David Nobles Jr. secrete glucose and sucrose. These simple sugars are the major sources used to produce ethanol.

“The cyanobacterium is potentially a very inexpensive source for sugars to use for ethanol and designer fuels,” says Nobles, a research associate in the Section of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

Brown and Nobles say their cyanobacteria can be grown in production facilities on non-agricultural lands using salty water unsuitable for human consumption or crops.

Other key findings include:

-- The new cyanobacteria use sunlight as an energy source to produce and excrete sugars and cellulose

-- Glucose, cellulose and sucrose can be continually harvested without harming or destroying the cyanobacteria (harvesting cellulose and sugars from true algae or crops, like corn and sugarcane, requires killing the organisms and using enzymes and mechanical methods to extract the sugars)

-- Cyanobacteria that can fix atmospheric nitrogen can be grown without petroleum-based fertilizer input

They recently published their research in the journal Cellulose.

Nobles made the new cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) by giving them a set of cellulose-making genes from a non-photosynthetic “vinegar” bacterium, Acetobacter xylinum, well known as a prolific cellulose producer.

The new cyanobacteria produce a relatively pure, gel-like form of cellulose that can be broken down easily into glucose.

“The problem with cellulose harvested from plants is that it’s difficult to break down because it’s highly crystalline and mixed with lignins [for structure] and other compounds,” Nobles says.

He was surprised to discover that the cyanobacteria also secrete large amounts of glucose or sucrose, sugars that can be directly harvested from the organisms.

“The huge expense in making cellulosic ethanol and biofuels is in using enzymes and mechanical methods to break cellulose down,” says Nobles. “Using the cyanobacteria escapes these expensive processes.”

Sources being used or considered for ethanol production in the United States include switchgrass and wood (cellulose), corn (glucose) and sugarcane (sucrose). True algae are also being developed for biodiesel production.

Brown sees a major benefit in using cyanobacteria to produce ethanol is a reduction in the amount of arable land turned over to fuel production and decreased pressure on forests.

“The pressure is on all these corn farmers to produce corn for non-food sources,” says Brown, the Johnson & Johnson Centennial Chair in Plant Cell Biology. “That same demand, for sucrose, is now being put on Brazil to open up more of the Amazon rainforest to produce more sugarcane for our growing energy needs. We don’t want to do that. You’ll never get the forests back.”

Brown and Nobles calculate that the approximate area needed to produce ethanol with corn to fuel all U.S. transportation needs is around 820,000 square miles, an area almost the size of the entire Midwest.

They hypothesize they could produce an equal amount of ethanol using an area half that size with the cyanobacteria based on current levels of productivity in the lab, but they caution that there is a lot of work ahead before cyanobacteria can provide such fuel in the field. Work with laboratory scale photobioreactors has shown the potential for a 17-fold increase in productivity. If this can be achieved in the field and on a large scale, only 3.5 percent of the area growing corn could be used for cyanobacterial biofuels.

Cyanobacteria are just one of many potential solutions for renewable energy, says Brown.

“There will be many avenues to become completely energy independent, and we want to be part of the overall effort,” Brown says. “Petroleum is a precious commodity. We should be using it to make useful products, not just burning it and turning it into carbon dioxide.”

Brown and Nobles are now researching the best methods to scale up efficient and cost-effective production of cyanobacteria. Two patent applications, 20080085520 and 20080085536, were recently published in the United States Patent and Trade Office.

Source: University of Texas at Austin

[Red Badger]

Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....

If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....

This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....

[Red Badger]

BIG TEXAS KnOcK!...........

[Froufrou]

We can make fuel from bio-engineered germs?

[snarks_when_bored]

New source for biofuels discovered

Soylent Cyan!

[rightwinggoth]

the yield from this source must be very poor...

[bpjam]

Real Scientists Solve the Fake Crisis of Global Warming (and make fuel incredibly cheap, clean and US made).

[Between the Lines]

Brown and Nobles say their cyanobacteria can be grown in production facilities on non-agricultural lands using salty water unsuitable for human consumption or crops.

So if this bacteria is released into the oceans will they become a gel-like form of cellulose also?

[Right Wing Assault]

Does the article say what these little suckers eat to get the carbon to make the sugars and cellulose?

[Supercharged Merlin]

So, what more news do we have on the reports about a bug modified from those in the stomachs of ruminants, which bug makes hydrocarbon chains. If that really works, making alcohols is a waste of time.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Note the conspicuous absence of any cellulose or sugars on the surface of these cells.

Oh yeah. I noticed that straight away. Can't fool me.

[Froufrou]

Works for me! Hand me a petri dish...

[Red Badger]

Alcohol (methyl or ethyl) is a necessary ingredient in the making of bio-diesel......

[RGSpincich]

Soylent unleaded. Turn those dead relatives into fuel.

[Red Badger]

Yes. Another “germ” makes oil directly as a waste product.........

[chrisser]

Does the article say what these little suckers eat to get the carbon to make the sugars and cellulose?

Doesn't say in the article - I assumed carbon dioxide dissolved in the water.

[Froufrou]

They probably knew about this since the germs ate the oil spill at the Valdiz...

[Rennes Templar]

There are quite a few of these “alternative” fuel sources coming out that cost a gazillion dollars to produce.

[Red Badger]

Being a blue-green algae, and therefore a plant, it uses the same sources as other photosynthesis plants do, CO2......

[Red Badger]

There are quite a few of these “alternative” fuel sources coming out that cost a gazillion TAXPAYER dollars to produce........there, fixed it....

[Red Badger]

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/253742/turning_dead_relatives_into_diamonds.html

[RGSpincich]

Truth is stranger than fiction...again.

[SlowBoat407]

Being a blue-green algae, and therefore a plant, it uses the same sources as other photosynthesis plants do, CO2......

So, CO2 would be a GOOD thing here, right?

[TexasRepublic]

Lots of potential solutions that always seem to be 10+ years out. We needed a solution not just yesterday, but decades ago.

[fishhound]

But will it fly one of these?

http://grab.orsm.net//update20080417/personal_helicopter.wmv

[Red Badger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_Tropsch

We’ve had one that works and has worked for nearly a century. A tried and proven technology, Fischer-Tropsch..............

[Red Badger]

Yes, unless you want to kill every plant on the earth.......

[Red Badger]

That guy is insane.......

[barb-tex]

Actually I think that the bacteria produce methane which can be easily converted to longer chain Hydrocarbons. This is hardly news, since Sewer Plants have burned off-gas for centuries. And who has not seen some clown do the tight blujean zippo lighter trick. I agree, why would anyone want to make EtOH? Even this is not a slam dunk, as as far as I know no one is doing it now.
barbra ann

[barb-tex]

I don’t understand the role of alcohol in Bio diesel. Can you write the equation for me? Fats and oils are poly alcohols aren’t they?
barbra ann

[thackney]

Make your own biodiesel
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html#biod

[wildbill]

“if production can be scaled up...”

All you need for significant production is a vat approximately two miles in diameter by ten miles high.

[theBuckwheat]

It should be noted how little play this will get in the MSM, A story about a different genetically engineered bacterium that directly produced diesel and kerosene also received little fanfare.

Since both stories herald a potential solution that addresses the two main public worries in the MSM (the supply of hydrocarbons from which to refine fuels and the level of CO2), since when is a possible solution to both problems not cause for great celebration? Answer: when the MSM’s worries are not really about supply and CO2.

Why does the MSM and the Left continually fret on these issues? They really seek to suppress our prosperity by suppressing our energy use. Clearly, they cannot be honest with the rest of us about this just as they cannot be honest with themselves. We are seeing self-loathing projected onto the public expression of hatred for our society.

Of course, the way to recover from self-loathing is for the loather to stop doing the things they loathe. Boy, do these people need help and a moral compass.

We had better learn to disregard everything the Left says or we will be in even more trouble than ever.

[MainFrame65]

==> “So if this bacteria is released into the oceans will they become a gel-like form of cellulose also?” <==

Yes - that way you will be able to walk to Europe for your next vacation, and not pollute the environment by burning all that jet fuel.

[Red Badger]

...a vat approximately two miles in diameter by ten miles high.

Or a whole bunch of littler ones.......

[tbw2]

Somewhere, an environmentalist is shivering. Frankenfoods or ending big oil - horrible decision to have to make.

[Froufrou]

Is it still okay to buy rice, or are we going to have to make do with Top Ramen...?

[tbw2]

Why hoard flour? Buy baking mix in bulk. A lot less work, and I’ll still use it. Broccoli cheddar rice mixes and couscous mixes, too, are getting added to my list. If rice shoots up in price, so will the mixes. And people aren’t buying the slightly more expensive stuff (pre-prepared/pre-mixed) nearly as much as they are “must get rice / flour / corn”.

[Red Badger]

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html#biodnew

[Don Carlos]

Does the article say what these little suckers eat

Lets hope it's liberal greenies!

[VOA]

bump

[WOSG]

PING for algoil/cyano-bacteria-fuel.

[fishhound]

Great way to commute though.

Do you know if the use of electricity to titrate glycerol from biodiesel applies to the raw vegetable oil or only as a last stagte to biodiesel? I saw some youtube of it and it was quick to produce glycerol between a positive and negeative posts and leave nice clear bisodeisel.

[Red Badger]

Do you know if the use of electricity to titrate glycerol from biodiesel applies to the raw vegetable oil or only as a last stagte to biodiesel?

That's a new one on me! Got the link?.......

[barb-tex]

That is a problem with any biological process capital ,Sloow, which means higher capital cost. The reason it cost more to make Light Beer is the fermentation period is 5 days instead of the 3 days for real Beer. Although the raw material cost is lower, the capital cost balances it out.
barbra ann

[Right Wing Assault]

Here’s an post about the ‘oil bug’:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2003052/posts

[fishhound]

I found them...
Electrostatic separation of glycerol from raw biodiesel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ll_ojIP2c

Electrostatic glycerol separation - WVO feedstock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ll_ojIP2c

High Speed, Glycerol Separation using High Voltage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdDvAMojZ90

[neverdem]

BUMP & A MICRO PING

[Smokin' Joe]

Brown and Nobles calculate that the approximate area needed to produce ethanol with corn to fuel all U.S. transportation needs is around 820,000 square miles, an area almost the size of the entire Midwest.

They hypothesize they could produce an equal amount of ethanol using an area half that size ....

Only 410,000 square miles, only half the size of the 'midwest'. And you'll be able to smell it in Boston...the world's biggest slime pit.

And where are we going to grow food?

[SunkenCiv]

Expert predicts ‘hydrogen economy’ will create millions of jobs
PersonnelToday,com(UK) | April 11, 2008
Posted on 04/14/2008 1:19:41 AM PDT by Dane
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001187/posts

If you want the US to be out of the grip of OPEC, raise your hand(vanity)
April 14, 2008 | Me, Myself, & I
Posted on 04/14/2008 7:32:18 PM PDT by Dane
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2001655/posts

[untrained skeptic]

Lots of potential solutions that always seem to be 10+ years out. We needed a solution not just yesterday, but decades ago.

Then I guess you'd better get working on that time machine...

In reality, the earth still has lots of oil, and our shortages are self imposed by people worried about over hyped "environmental" concerns that are based on a lot of fear and a little unproven science.