Microbes "eating" CO2 - Fossil Fuels On Demand

[Scotteq]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...rld-of-fossil-fuels-on-demand/article1871149/

In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent for “a proprietary organism” – a genetically adapted E. coli bacterium – that feeds solely on carbon dioxide and excretes liquid hydrocarbons: diesel fuel, jet fuel and gasoline. This breakthrough technology, the company says, will deliver renewable supplies of liquid fossil fuel almost anywhere on Earth, in essentially unlimited quantity and at an energy-cost equivalent of $30 (U.S.) a barrel of crude oil. It will deliver, the company says, “fossil fuels on demand.”

We’re not talking “biofuels” – not, at any rate, in the usual sense of the word. The Joule technology requires no “feedstock,” no corn, no wood, no garbage, no algae. Aside from hungry, gene-altered micro-organisms, it requires only carbon dioxide and sunshine to manufacture crude. And water: whether fresh, brackish or salt. With these “inputs,” it mimics photosynthesis, the process by which green leaves use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds. Indeed, the company describes its manufacture of fossil fuels as “artificial photosynthesis.”

< Story Continues - Please follow the Link >


If this actually works (Microbes "Photosynthesizing" CO2 and producing fuel), it can go a LONG way towards solving any number of problems. Not to mention making it's inventors stupendously wealthy...

Comments??

Criticisms??

Disbelief??

Conspiracy Theories???

 

[Lizardman]

Too good to be true. Seems like something that will never actually produce any fuels in the future because the lab study does not scale to real world sizes and locations.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Lab development vs commerical use have a bridge that requires crossing.
Scaling up to handle productin may be a serious issue

 

[Scotteq]

Too good to be true. Seems like something that will never actually produce any fuels in the future because the lab study does not scale to real world sizes and locations.

Well... The article does say:

Joule says it now has “a library” of fossil-fuel organisms at work in its Massachusetts labs, each engineered to produce a different fuel. It has “proven the process,” has produced ethanol (for example) at a rate equivalent to 10,000 U.S. gallons an acre a year. It anticipates that this yield could hit 25,000 gallons an acre a year when scaled for commercial production, equivalent to roughly 800 barrels of crude an acre a year

That sounds a hell of a lot bigger than a Lab Study...


OTOH, it *is* still slim on real data - Though I can well understand the commercial and financial reasons why they'd hold their cards very close to the vest...

 

[Moonbeam]

If it gets loose into the environment it will turn the oceans into gasoline.

 

[Scotteq]

Lab development vs commerical use have a bridge that requires crossing.
Scaling up to handle productin may be a serious issue

Very true...

One of the thoughts I had was:

Manufacturing Plants and Power Plants (especially the coal burning kind) already have to have scrubbers for their exhausts, right? Wouldn't a good intermediary step be to equip these plants with a version of this technology?

Reduced Pollution, and the company gets some fuel for it's plant/vehicles...

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Interesting if it actually comes to fruition. I'll file it in the Believe It When I See It folder for now.

 

[CallMeJoe]

If it gets loose into the environment it will turn the oceans into gasoline.

An interesting postulation; what might be the results of such an organism at loose? Imagine random pools of liquid hydrocarbons suddenly forming all about...

 

[Moonbeam]

An interesting postulation; what might be the results of such an organism at loose? Imagine random pools of liquid hydrocarbons suddenly forming all about...

I worry my fish will explode in the frying pan.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If it gets loose into the environment it will turn the oceans into gasoline.

That's actually VERY scary, if you think about it.

All we need to combat that, is a way to burn hydrocarbons, and release water vapor.

 

[bfdd]

I worry my fish will explode in the frying pan.

don't trip, gasoline doesn't explode so you're ok

 

[Schadenfroh]

If it gets loose into the environment it will turn the oceans into gasoline.

Sounds like a certain Cracked "story."
http://www.cracked.com/article_18503_how-biotech-company-almost-killed-world-with-booze.html

The bacterium was called Klebsiella planticola, and it nearly murdered everybody; you just don't know it yet.

 

[Perknose]

I worry my fish will explode in the frying pan.

don't trip, gasoline doesn't explode so you're ok

But it does make your piece of cod taste terrible. And, it may not explode, but gas is flammable.

Do you want to be panned as a Big Flamer sporting a cod piece?

 

[dainthomas]

An interesting postulation; what might be the results of such an organism at loose? Imagine random pools of liquid hydrocarbons suddenly forming all about...

Don't worry, they'd suck all the CO2 out of the atmosphere killing all plant life and simultaneously plunging the planet into an eternal ice age LONG before the oceans turned to gasoline.

 

[Scotteq]

But it does make your piece of cod taste terrible. And, it may not explode, but gas is flammable.

Do you want to be panned as a Big Flamer sporting a cod piece?

< HorriblePun crits you for 800 Billiondy (799,999,999,999.... Overkill) >


< You Die >

 

[epidemis]

So they have eliminated an intermediate process (turning feedstock into ethanol). THey are still only glorified plants. Alot of questions remains,

 

[Throckmorton]

We already have algae that can turn CO2 into oil. Is this more efficient?

 

[Elias824]

there is allready bacteria in the ocean that eats co2, though I dont know what the by product is. Either way the oceans have not turned into oceans over other things from bacteria. I still imagine it wouldnt be good, I can only hope that the bacteria has some kind of control that prevents them from living in the outside world. Though I guess life finds a way

 

[Elias824]

We already have algae that can turn CO2 into oil. Is this more efficient?

I know there has been alot of debate and tests about what kind of bacteria and algae would best be suited for this, perhaps they found something that actually works well, or maybe its just a scam to get attention and money.

 

[Siddhartha]

I wonder what it uses as an energy source. Plants use light photons as the energy source for converting Carbon Dioxide to carbohydrates.

 

[Scotteq]

I wonder what it uses as an energy source. Plants use light photons as the energy source for converting Carbon Dioxide to carbohydrates.

The article says it uses Sunlight, Water, and CO2.

 

[trenchfoot]

If credible, I wonder how the Saudi's and the rest of the oil producing nations are manuevering themselves to deal with this new source of energy. All of these countries have a finite source, while this new source has almost unlimited capacity. I'm also wondering what this new energy source will do to the price of oil as it now stands. Hmmmmmm....I guess to control costs you have to control the source itself, like they do now. Maybe buy the rights/patents and bury it like they did to other competitive products?

 

[chucky2]

They've got a lot of sunlight and cheap labor. They could setup fuel farms themselves and use for their use and/or export.

 

[SagaLore]

If it gets loose into the environment it will turn the oceans into gasoline.

I was about to post the exact same thing! D:

It will get loose into the environment. To mass produce this stuff, there is no cost effective level of controls to prevent it from hitching a ride out of the manufacturing plant. Probably floating around in someone's club soda they didn't finish during their lunch break.

Its not just oceans - this stuff could potentially coat everything and suffocate all plant life, literally.

This reminds me of Ice-nine.

 

[SagaLore]

there is allready bacteria in the ocean that eats co2, though I dont know what the by product is. Either way the oceans have not turned into oceans over other things from bacteria. I still imagine it wouldnt be good, I can only hope that the bacteria has some kind of control that prevents them from living in the outside world. Though I guess life finds a way

Its called algae and coral reefs. The energy gets converted to sugars and fats. Its the start of the entire underwater food chain.