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Mass. company making diesel with sun, water, CO2
Yahoo/AP ^ | 2-27-11 | JAY LINDSAY

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cambridge; diesel; massachusetts
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To: fuente

actually, the organism they are using is algae.

and the ease of which this is done by genetic manipulation is now days very simple.

anyone want to chat about it , pm me.

we planned to use the same tech to scrub coal fired power plant sox, pox, nox.

EL


61 posted on 02/27/2011 1:15:00 PM PST by Eureka_Lead (No political party has ever become a dictatorship when the citizens have firearms - Stay Vigilant)
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To: Sherman Logan
This is the latest kick...

Governments (ie taxpayers) are giving grants to fund making diesel from algae.

The bottleneck seems to be the C02 required... (Shocker!!!) C02 is the food the supercharges the growth of the algae. In most instances these startups are placed next to power-plants or other sources of c02 emissions for rapid growth. Without access to massive amounts of C02 it's worthless...

In Australia they have worked the production down to about $AU30 gallon...
62 posted on 02/27/2011 1:20:56 PM PST by Minus_The_Bear
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To: Ole Okie

A while back when gas went into the high four dollar range there were some inventive folks who came up with a modification. They pre-heated the fuel so it became a gas before entering the carb. It increased their gas mileage. I don’t know how much but it seemed like a fifteen fold increase.


63 posted on 02/27/2011 1:36:31 PM PST by ReverendJames (Only A Painter Or A Liberal Can Change Black To White.)
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To: freekitty

They are probably able to do it only in very small quantities. One hopes that it could be scaled up to useful amounts....


64 posted on 02/27/2011 2:08:20 PM PST by expatpat
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To: ReverendJames
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.

If true, they would need current energy sources at first to pump water and do whatever separation they need, but once they are producing, they can burn their own fuel and not need fossil fuel energy.

65 posted on 02/27/2011 2:20:53 PM PST by Right Wing Assault (Our Constitution: the new Inconvenient Truth)
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To: Right Wing Assault

So then part of their production has to be used for production which lessens the output. Still in all though, they’d have to produce millions of gallons of the stuff for the US economy to survive on it. Then too, you’d have to use the product to transport the product. Anything involved with production and transportation has to be with that product. No fair using bio-fuels like ethanol.


66 posted on 02/27/2011 2:26:01 PM PST by ReverendJames (Only A Painter Or A Liberal Can Change Black To White.)
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To: samtheman
reducing carbon emissions

What they probably mean is the power plants can run on their stuff and they can suck in the CO2 from the stacks and have the /bactera/sun turn it into more non-fossil fuel to run the power plant.

Also, remember this article was most likely written by a journalist, not a scientist, so all details are questionable.

67 posted on 02/27/2011 2:29:14 PM PST by Right Wing Assault (Our Constitution: the new Inconvenient Truth)
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To: reg45
Yes, it would take considerably more energy to create it than you could get out of it.

But some of that energy is FREE. The sun. If you plant an oak tree and do nothing to it for a number of years, you can cut it down and burn it and get more energy out of it than you used to plant it and cut it. Same situation here.

The other morning, my sidewalk was covered with a thin layer of snow. The sun came out and melted it even though it was below freezing. For free. No salt, no physical labor, no snowblower.

68 posted on 02/27/2011 2:43:24 PM PST by Right Wing Assault (Our Constitution: the new Inconvenient Truth)
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To: kingattax
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.

Great. IF this were to be true, just think of the environmental damage when the organism gets loose.

69 posted on 02/27/2011 2:46:20 PM PST by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|http://pure-gas.org|Must be a day for changing taglines)
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To: ReverendJames
So then part of their production has to be used for production which lessens the output. Still in all though, they’d have to produce millions of gallons of the stuff for the US economy to survive on it. Then too, you’d have to use the product to transport the product. Anything involved with production and transportation has to be with that product.

All true. And some of those are also true of fossil origin gasoline, as well. But any country that currently has to import oil is still ahead on the deal even if they can't produce all of their needs. If these Joule folks can really produce it ready to burn in vehicles for $30 a barrel, anyone who bought it would be way ahead of a guy who is buying crude oil at $100 a barrel.I, too, am a wait and see guy, but every once in a while, something new AND good comes along. We'll see.

70 posted on 02/27/2011 2:58:10 PM PST by Right Wing Assault (Our Constitution: the new Inconvenient Truth)
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To: Right Wing Assault

That’s the point.


71 posted on 02/27/2011 3:01:08 PM PST by reg45
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To: everyone
I think this is completely possible. Bacteria are essentially nano factories that produce molecules. Put the right sequences of DNA in there and the cells will produce the molecule. We use them to produce human Insulin. As for energy, the article says that is supplied by the sun. After all these same cyanobacteria used the same ingredients to change the early atmosphere from a reducing one to a free oxygen one capable of supporting life as we know it on this planet.

As for the oil companies buying it up and shelving it that is absurd. The best way to increase profits is to cut costs and become more efficient. If the oil companies had a way to produce already refined diesel without huge refineries, fleets of oil tankers, oil drilling rigs, huge exploration and development costs they could sell gas at a lower cost and still make even bigger profits.

I agree that if this is real and not a bunch of hype it will be the environmentalists and the left who will try to stop it. There motive has never been to save the environment but to destroy freedom and progress. They are motivated by hatred for man, this Earth, and existence. They will attack anything that make man's life better and allows men to succeed and achieve. Oil is the most efficient and cost effective fuel we have right now and is the engine of economic growth. It's no wonder they hate it so much.

72 posted on 02/27/2011 3:01:43 PM PST by albionin
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To: kingattax

“based company says it can manipulate the organism”

This is nothing new and many companies have been working for years to genetically engineer organisms to produce fuel. Sooner or later someone will, when has been the question on the minds of many people following this for years.


73 posted on 02/27/2011 3:21:08 PM PST by thatjoeguy (Wind is just air, but pushier.)
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To: richardtavor
‘The evil oil companies?’

No, the oval eel companies.
TWB

74 posted on 02/27/2011 4:01:52 PM PST by TWhiteBear (Jobs, Peace, Food, Security .... Down with Obama(Peacefully))
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To: P-Marlowe
limited by the amount of real estate devoted to the process.

Use the open ocean. Algae floats. The first oil industry, whaling, was really an algae harvesting technology.

75 posted on 02/27/2011 4:02:10 PM PST by Reeses
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To: P-Marlowe
limited by the amount of real estate devoted to the process.

Use the open ocean. Algae floats. The first oil industry, whaling, was really an algae harvesting technology.

76 posted on 02/27/2011 4:02:28 PM PST by Reeses
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To: ReverendJames
They pre-heated the fuel so it became a gas before entering the carb. It increased their gas mileage. I don’t know how much but it seemed like a fifteen fold increase.

Nope. Gas engines are about 25% efficient, meaning they extract about a quarter of the energy generated by burning the fuel. So you could get, in theory, a fourfold increase in mileage. No more, though, and much less in reality.

77 posted on 02/27/2011 4:06:34 PM PST by Grut
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To: prisoner6
Whatever the molecular representation of diesel/ethanol is?

Ethanol = C2H6O
Diesel = in various combinations of n = 8 to 21

-- CnH(2n+2)

-- CnH(2n+1)

-- CnH(2n)

78 posted on 02/27/2011 4:17:20 PM PST by HangnJudge
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To: kingattax

Goodbye foreign oil, hello snake oil.


79 posted on 02/27/2011 4:47:09 PM PST by P8riot (I carry a gun because I can't carry a cop.....Eagle Scout since Sep 9, 1970)
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To: kingattax

ping


80 posted on 02/27/2011 4:49:09 PM PST by wiggen (The teacher card. When the racism card just won't work.)
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