Posted on 02/27/2011 11:30:05 AM PST by kingattax
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A Massachusetts biotechnology company says it can produce the fuel that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow.
Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically-engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels.
What can it mean? No less than "energy independence," Joule's web site tells the world, even if the world's not quite convinced.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Enthusiastic subtext made me read “genetically-engineered orgasm” at first.
So great. They maybe made a quart of the stuff. Ok, now go refine several million gallons of the stuff a day. OBTW, you can’t use any energy derived from fossil fuel. That means no coal or oil to generate the power you need to make it.
Don’t worry the “Men in Black” will be at their door momentarily. :)
From the article:
“Joule was founded in 2007. In the last year, it’s roughly doubled its employees to 70, closed a $30 million second round of private funding in April and added John Podesta, former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors.”
Rest assured, it’s a scam!
What will happen is that if it's a success someone like ExxonMobil will buy up the company. If it's that big of a breakthrough they'll take it and run with it. If I were a board member of XOM, I'd be looking at what's happening and preparing for the day when the nutjobs in the Mid-east shut off oil production, combined with the idiots in the Regime shutting down domestic production , and finding something that isn't affected by either of those things.
Unlike what the left would have us believe, companies don't just want to sit on a hoard of money, they want to put it out and get a return on it.
Then too, it’ll be covered up like the 100mpg carburetor that the evil oil companies bought and destroyed the plans.
Thoughts for the day
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I looked into the algae growing technology. You end up with serious tonnage of biomass you have to squeeze the lipid from. You are better off just burning the product in a power plant.
If you have a swimming pool close to a heavily traveled roadway you might be a future millionaire. - Tom
The company envisions building facilities near power plants and consuming their waste carbon dioxide, so their cyanobacteria can reduce carbon emissions while they're at it.I had a WTF moment reading that line.
The system's inputs are sunlight, water and CO2.
Water can be piped in from anywhere. CO2 is in the atmosphere... EVERYWHERE.
The only input that is significantly impacted by production-facility location is SUNLIGHT.
Instead of saying "we'll build these things in the Southwest where the sunlight is constant" they make some lame statement about reducing carbon emissions.
What a foolish statement. The world's atmospheric CO2 is 100% fungible. Remove CO2 from Arizona and it's the same as removing it from Ohio. It doesn't matter.
The fact that they don't know this makes me highly suspicious about what other logical errors they are committing.
If this organism consumes Co2, Water and Sunlight, then the earth has those in such abundance that this organism would be everywhere. We would know of such an animal.
I say this is a farce.
Wow! A free lunch!
Plants require CO2 to thrive? But... isn't CO2 an "evil" green house gas?!
Sounds like recycling CO2 makes way more sense than pie-in-the-sky sequestration.
Wait, nature already does that. Wow, that's intelligent!
Intelligent design?
That makes so much sense! Of course now I see...H2O...CO2...hydrocarbons...duh!
As the article says, it produces a minor “sheen” on a large volume of water.
This is very doubtfully of practical significance, but there is one way of telling: if they ask for a federal grant, then you know that it can’t work economically.
Tree-living fungus that manufactures diesel could be new source of green energy
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:07 AM on 05th November 2008
Comments (20) Add to My Stories
Gliocladium roseum could be a completely new source of green energy
A tree-living fungus that manufactures diesel fuel has been discovered in South America.
Experts believe the organism, Gliocladium roseum, could potentially be a completely new source of green energy.
The fungus, which lives inside the Ulmo tree in the Patagonian rainforest, naturally produces hydrocarbon fuel similar to the diesel used in cars and trucks.
Scientists were amazed to find that it was able to convert plant cellulose directly into the biofuel, dubbed ‘myco-diesel’.
Crops normally have to converted to sugar and ferment before they can be turned into useful fuel.
Professor Gary Strobel, from Montana State University in the U.S., said: ‘G. roseum can make myco-diesel directly from cellulose, the main compound found in plants and paper.
‘This means if the fungus was used to make fuel, a step in the production process could be skipped.’
Prof Strobel led an investigation into novel fungi in the rainforests of northern Patagonia, which cross the borders of Argentina and Chile.
He found that when the diesel fuel fungus was exposed to potentially toxic antibiotics, it reacted defensively by generating volatile gases.
‘Then when we examined the gas composition of G. roseum, we were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives,’ said Prof Strobel.
‘The results were totally unexpected and very exciting and almost every hair on my arms stood on end.’
Cellulose provides the fibrous supporting structure of plants. During biofuel production, cellulose from plant waste is first treated with enzymes that turn it into sugar. Microbes then ferment the sugar into inflammable ethanol.
Nearly 430 million tonnes of plant waste is produced from farmland each year around the world.
Prof Strobel said: ‘We were very excited to discover that G. roseum can digest cellulose. Although the fungus makes less myco-diesel when it feeds on cellulose compared to sugars, new developments in fermentation technology and genetic manipulation could help improve the yield.
‘In fact, the genes of the fungus are just as useful as the fungus itself in the development of new biofuels.
‘The discovery also questions our knowledge of the way fossil fuels are made. The accepted theory is that crude oil, which is used to make diesel, is formed from the remains of dead plants and animals that have been exposed to heat and pressure for millions of years.
‘If fungi like this are producing myco-diesel all over the rainforest, they may have contributed to the formation of fossil fuels.’
The findings appear in the November issue of the journal Microbiology.
I am the Earl of a magnificent kingdom in Nigeria. I have an investment opportunity of a lifetime for you. We have discovered a process which can cheaply turn grass, leaves, and wood products into diesel. You need do very little to participate in a business which will have you wealthy beyond your lifetime. Just forward me your routing number and bank account number. We will do the rest and all your life's concerns will bother you no more.
Peace with treasure to you -
The Earl of Obamastan, Nigeria
They should have kept in under their hat, now the EPA is going to put them out of business.
Surprisingly enough, it actually worked. They made fuel and actually flew a plane using it.
Downside? It was a little pricy, even by government standards. Over $800/gal.
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