Posted on 02/27/2011 3:56:19 PM PST by Eleutheria5
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.
"We make some lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we've validated, all of which we've shown to investors," said Joule chief executive Bill Sims.
"If we're half right, this revolutionizes the world's largest industry, which is the oil and gas industry," he said. "And if we're right, there's no reason why this technology can't change the world."
The doing, though, isn't quite done, and there's skepticism Joule can live up to its promises.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist Philip Pienkos said Joule's technology is exciting but unproven, and their claims of efficiency are undercut by difficulties they could have just collecting the fuel their organism is producing.
.....
oule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel full per acre annually, over four times more than the most efficient algal process for making fuel. And they say they can do it at $30 a barrel.
See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/fSCFCE
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyfinance.com ...
That does seem like a lot. On the other hand, the total land used for agriculture in the U.S. is about 2.2 billion acres, so we’d have to use less than 1/5 of one percent of that for this venture. Shouldn’t be a problem.
I suspect they are just hyping things at this point to get investors, however.
I think I will wait until I see this on the market.
“Math impairment alert!”
Oil is now at about $100 a barrel and gasoline is about $3.50 a gallon. Lower the price to $30 a barrel and the price of gasoline drops to about .30 of what it is now. .30 X $3.50 = $1.05 per gallon.
So, show me your math.
I was looking at that, too. Only 15,000 gallons per acre annually isn’t much, just a little over 356 barrels per acre.
That will use up a lot of territory to produce scant gasoline.
its blue-green algae ... its food is CO2 and sunlight.
Meanwhile, I am jarring and then compressing unicorn gas (to put it delicately) into recyclable canisters. Let me know if you want in on the ground floor.
To protect the entrenched interests. Who also happen to "own" the politicians.
They use terms like "prevent market disruption", and "allow time for evolutionary change", etc.
But the bottom line is that people who profit from existing products and markets want to protect their markets and their cash flow.
“A barrel is 42 gallons.”
This is true. However, the “drums” of chemicals I get at the water company are still 55 gallons.
Is Unicorn Gas Regular or Premium?
Enh. You’ve watched too many disaster movies from the ‘70s. If it gets loose, you develop a very aggressive strain of bacteria that eats the diesel-secreting little buggers, set it loose in the area of outbreak, and that’s that. If it were a ‘70s disaster flick, of course, the bacteria would be super smart, and wage war against humans. But really, bacteria is rather stupid, and only knows how to eat, excrete, and reproduce.
There are 268,000+ sq miles in Texas alone. I’m thinking that 3,000 sq miles in western Texas might be good land use. Distribute the rest of the 3,700 sq miles over Wy, CO, UT, NM and AZ desert / scrub land
Oh, trust me, it’s Super Premium.
How will they stop Joule from distributing diesel-making kits, consisting of a 55-gallon drum, a processing and collection system, and a starter culture of their little wonder-germs? Suddenly, anyone with their own property can just never go to a filling station, and it’s nobody else’s business why.
Eh - it's already a naturally occurring bacteria. It hasn't done irreparable damage in its natural state.
I should have said $30 a barrel oil is equivalent to a bit over $1 a gallon gasoline. There is quite a bit of processing, transportation and distribution to get the gasoline out of the oil and into your tank. Still, I think the thought was clear because the article referenced $30 a barrel oil.
sfl
Neither - it’s “#2 bacdiesel”.
Has Soro invested in this company? Remember his “new green energy fund”. How many times a new company hypes about something, get government funds, their IPO skyrockets, the insiders sell at inflated price, stock drops to 0 when it goes under and the pensions funds along with private investors are out BILLIONS. No government funding. Say no to corporate welfare.
We’ll never see $1 fuel again - big oil has had a taste of America’s arse and won’t allow that to happen.
The only way for $1 fuel is for one to produce their own motor fuels, either via this method or biodiesel..
We will never see $1 fuel again, but it has nothing to do with “big oil” unless you consider the Saudis, Iran, and the Russians to be “big oil”. The reason that we will not see $1 fuel again is because the dollar will have lost so much value that it cannot happen. Inflating the money supply is a favorite tactic of leftists everywhere.
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