Posted on 03/18/2008 7:25:31 PM PDT by Borneo1
TIFTON — A Tifton agricultural researcher says he has found the solution to the world’s energy crisis through genetic modification and cloning of bacterial organisms that can convert bio-mass into hydrocarbons on a grand scale. The local researcher believes his groundbreaking discovery could result in the production of 500 to 1,000 barrels of hydrocarbon fuel per day from the initial production facility. The hydrocarbon fuel — commonly known as oil or fossil fuel when drilled — will require no modification to automobiles, oil pipelines or refineries as they exist today and could forever end the United States’ dependence on foreign oil, he said.
J.C. Bell, who brought the world powdered peanut butter, has spent the last four years, identifying the bacteria that produces hydrocarbon and then finding a way to genetically alter it so that it could produce hydrocarbon in greater volume.
(Excerpt) Read more at tiftongazette.com ...
That's my thought to - haven't been able to think what on earth one would do with powdered peanut butter.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/business/stories/070429landfill.html
ummm - it’s being done already
bump for later
Georgia.
You say: “Personally, I believe he may be on to something. For all of us, I sure hope he is.”
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/business/stories/070429landfill.html
Also, I had a friend in Utah back in the 60’s! - that had tens of thousands of chicken in several ‘houses’ - heated the houses with a furnace he made that burned chicken manure - and in the ‘80’s, I did an article on a chicken farmer here in Maine that did the same
I hope Mr. Bell packs heat. He’s liable to wind up back in the carbon cycle himself if he can put the Saudis out of the oil biz.
“It tastes just like sawdust”
Stays soggy, even in flakes, IIRC.
The article states that the researcher, J. C. Bell, has patented his process to convert biomass to fuel, yet a search of www.uspto.gov comes up with nada.
Maybe some intrepid Freeper can locate the patent.
Any car converted to run on LNG or Propane would work just fine on Liquid Methane.
Methane is just Hydrogen with Carbon added. Pure "hydrocarbon"..
The Carbon atoms allow for higher compression of the hydrogen gas, meaning one can store something like 4 times the amount of energy as methane than you can with hydrogen alone.
If this guy (and his process) is for real, what he has developed could actually be a major contributor to oil independence.
If we could all install those little unicellular boogers in our septic tanks, we could each have a gaspump in our backyards. (Eyes dazzling with apocalyptic vision.)
Monster trucks for everyone!
Just offhand, I would think it would be great for commercial production of peanut flavorings in candies, various baked products, ( like cookies ) and as an additive in cooking.
As far as long term storage goes, I would think that powdered peanut butter would last a great deal longer, never go rancid, and become a standard item in the kitchen spice rack, along with pumpkin pie spice, chili powder, curry, etc..
That was my first impression...
POWDERED PEANUT BUTTER????
My GOD, how did humanity last so long without it!
Scientists seem to be moving toward the consensus that oil is not the result of dead dinosaurs, but is instead the result of a bacterial process that occurs constantly.
I’m not too hopeful about this though. If the freaking greens will not let us build any nuclear power plants or even any new refineries, what makes anyone think they will allow people to build an oil production plant?
“My question IS...Will the process for creating it be given to the Red Chinese like we’ve given all our other technology?”
The Chinese will get it from the chinese nationals that work as graduate students and researchers on the project and those that fill every university and industrial research lab in the US. However in this case I dont think there will be much to steal.
Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons that varies with the deposit. It varies in the relative amount of lower versus, medium, or higher molecular weight molecules. There is sweet-light crude from west Texas. Heavy crude from Venezuela, or tar from Canada.
It can all be refined(cracked and distilled). The cost of refining depends the relative mix, with the heavier the grade the higher the price.
The gasoline you put in your car is not pure octane. You have three choices of gasoline that vary with the amount of octane with the price being higher as the octane increases.
The estimated cost of producing hydrocarbon molecules from biomass is between $10 and $30 per barrel of hydrocarbon.
I can assure you that I am not a crackpot, just a nerd. This technology is totally proven and we are to the point of building pilot plants to provide the engineering data needed to design the most efficient large scale production facilities. We should begin construction of large scale facilities with the next 12 months. All we have done is to modify naturally occurring bacteria to break down biomass and produce different length hydrocarbon molecules. We don’t use the term oil because oil is a mix of all of the hydrocarbon chains. We produce one length chain from each bacterial line.
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