UC Berkeley graduate student Zachary Baer works with a fermentation chamber to separate acetone and butanol (top clear layer) from the Clostridium brew at the bottom. The chemicals can be extracted and catalytically altered to make a fuel that burns like diesel. Credit: Robert Sanders
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....
If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST jut FReepmail me..... This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....As usual, the breakthrough will be access to cheap feed stocks, not process. Even the process such as cellulose to sugar, is not ready.
The algae to fuel process failed when they determined that the algae feedstock needs fertilizer (natural gas) and phosphate which is mined. These inputs exceeded value of output.
Keep frackin while you still can.
Who cares about climate change? What about topsoil and water?
I'll bet these diots call themselves "environmentally conscious."
Mayor Bloomberg says this conversion of sugar to energy is permissible, so long as it pumped into the vehicle in under-16 ounce servings.
You thought it was bad when they used corn for diesel. Just wait until they go after our Crispy Cremes.
Not to worry. If this works as advertised the greenies will kill it. Their goal isn't clean and abundant energy, it is death to capitalism. Period.
Weird. I was just reading about butyl alcohol today.
I’m not a chemist and the article is short on specifics. Am I reading it right that the glyceryl tributyrate (tributyrin) is simply mixed with the fermentation results and then separates out the butanol and acetone from the mixture, leaving the ethanol behind with the bacteria and water?
It sounds like the catalyst part comes aftewards when they try to turn the butanol/acetone into diesel equivalent.
Wouldn’t the butanol by itself be useful as a gasoline replacement?
My (limited) understanding of the ABE process was that it was impractical because the butanol poised the bacteria befor they could generate high amounts of butanol, and then the resulting slurry was mostly water that had to be distilled out (with large energy inputs). It sounds like this tributyrin stuff could make ABE more useful for butanol production.
Just how do sugar derived hydrocarbons burn cleaner than petroleum derived hydrocarbons? Magic carbon?
How much does sugar cost a pound and how much does diesel cost a pound add to the sugar the cost per pound to turn it into diesel.
Bzzzzzzzzt. You may have passed Chemistry, but you got an F in math.
But if you got a A in Poly-Sci and have an inlaw that is Nancy Pelosi, why son, your a Billionaire!
This nonsense of converting food to fuel has to stop.
Hummmm..Verry Intresting ...Thanks for the posting
Another foolish green fuel project to turn food into fuel. We already have a process of coal gasification that will turn coal into diesel.
“What I am really excited about is that this is a fundamentally different way of taking feedstocks...”
Right about ‘feedstocks’ is when he should have realized this is a bad idea.
Convert sewage to fuel. Well understood process and plenty of feedstock that is a problem to dispose of.
Bump to read later.
Sugar fuelled Diesel/electric traction.
[sarc] Can’t think of a better use for Sugar.[/sarc]
Thanks for that post, very interesting.
Thry should get some of the free money from DOE for green energy and go at it.