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Lab makes renewable diesel fuel from E. coli poop
Story Highlights:
Some biotech laboratories are using bacteria to create a form of diesel fuel
"Production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope
Bacteria are fed plant material, or sugar, and excrete the equivalent of diesel
Experts say the process is still too small-scale to be a viable energy alternative Story Highlights: Some biotech laboratories are using bacteria to create a form of diesel fuel ... more -
Lab makes renewable diesel fuel from E. coli poop?
Video at Link
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Fossil fuels that keep our planet running -- oil, natural gas and coal -- were created from the decomposition of plants, plankton and other organic material over millions of years.
Today, scientists all over the globe are working to create fuels with the same properties but without that pesky 100 million-year wait. And "renewable petroleum" is now a reality, on a small scale, in some laboratories.
The biotech company LS9 Inc. is using single-celled bacteria to create an oil equivalent. These petroleum "production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope.
"We started in my garage two years ago, and we're producing barrels today, so things are moving pretty quickly," said biochemist Stephen del Cardayre, LS9 vice president of research and development.
How does it work? A special type of genetically altered bacteria are fed plant material: basically, any type of sugar. They digest it and excrete the equivalent of diesel fuel.
Humans have used bacteria and yeast for centuries to do similar work, creating beer, moonshine and, more recently, ethanol. But scientists' recent strides in genetic engineering now allow them to control the end product. Video at Link ... more -
Lab makes renewable diesel fuel from E. coli poop
The biotech company LS9 Inc. is using single-celled bacteria to create an oil equivalent. These petroleum "production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope.
"We started in my garage two years ago, and we're producing barrels today, so things are moving pretty quickly," said biochemist Stephen del Cardayre, LS9 vice president of research and development.
How does it work? A special type of genetically altered bacteria are fed plant material: basically, any type of sugar. They digest it and excrete the equivalent of diesel fuel.
Humans have used bacteria and yeast for centuries to do similar work, creating beer, moonshine and, more recently, ethanol. But scientists' recent strides in genetic engineering now allow them to control the end product.
"So these are bacteria that have been engineered to produce oil," del Cardayre said. "They started off like regular lab bacteria that didn't produce oil, but we took genes from nature, we engineered them a bit [and] put them into this organism so that we can convert sugar to oil."
The company is focusing on diesel fuel, but the microbes can be "programmed" to make gasoline or jet fuel.
The bacteria used are a harmless form of E. coli. And the feedstock, or food for the microbes, can be any type of agricultural product, from sugar cane to waste such as wheat straw and wood chips. Choosing plants with no food value sidesteps one of the biggest criticisms of another synthetic fuel, corn ethanol, because critics say that corn should be used as food, not fuel.
It takes a lot of microbe poop to fill a gas tank, however. Biofuel experts say that processes like those used at LS9 are scientifically viable but that there's still a long way to go before they can address global energy needs.
"Scalability is really the critical issue," said Robert McCormick, principal engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. "If you've got something that you can make work in a test tube, that's good, but you've got to be able to make it work on a very large scale to have an impact on our petroleum imports."
But del Cardayre says his product has other benefits over traditional fossil fuels.
"What we've done is make the same molecules from renewable sources, so that it can go into the existing infrastructure, be made domestically and in an environmentally friendly way. That's the goal," he said.
The LS9 product does not have the cancer-causing benzene that is in other fossil fuels and has far less sulfur, he said.
LS9 President Bob Walsh says that using existing petroleum pipelines is crucial. Ethanol, for example, requires its own distribution system because it can corrode oil pipelines.
"You can't put ethanol in a pipeline, [and] even your car needs some adjustments to it; whereas the product we're making is going into the existing system, and that's a big difference," he said.
LS9 expects to be in large-scale commercial production in three or four years. But del Cardayre is the first to admit that microscopic oil fields are not a silver bullet for the world's energy woes.
"I doubt we're going to completely eliminate our dependence on oil, but we'll certainly be able to supplement the amount of oil we need in the short term," he said.
Although energy researchers are spending tens of millions of dollars in venture capital, McCormick believes that "just making more" is not enough.
"I think that the answer to reducing our petroleum-import problem and reducing the carbon emissions from transportation is really threefold," he said. "It involves replacement fuels like biofuels, it involves using much more efficient vehicles than we use today, and it involves driving less." The biotech company LS9 Inc. is using single-celled bacteria to create an oil equivalent. These petroleum "production facilities&... more -
Squeeze fruit seeds, get fuel
Bryan Beer, a citrus grower in southwestern Florida, sees himself as a bit of a pioneer. He's not digging for gold. It's more like he's planting for oil.
He is planting a jatropha tree, a plant that can produce diesel fuel and could one day power a 747. His plans are a little less ambitious; he just wants to plant enough to run his tractors.
"Any kind of relief or help we can get from a cheaper source of oil could impact the agricultural industry tremendously throughout the country, throughout the world," said Beer, whose family has been growing citrus for decades.
Jatropha means "doctor food." It originated in South America, where it was once used for medicinal purposes. There are three seeds within the golf-ball-sized fruit. When pressed, its oil can be used as fuel in any standard diesel engine with zero processing, experts say.
Sound like a pipe dream? It's not.
It's being taken very seriously by companies all over the world, including the Chrysler motor company and Air New Zealand. The airline is planning a test flight in November in Auckland in which jatropha biodiesel will be mixed with diesel fuel.
This is what has farmers, scientists and engineers excited. Video Bryan Beer, a citrus grower in southwestern Florida, sees himself as a bit of a pioneer. He's not digging for gold. It's mor... more -
the JUNIOR LUCKY BASTARD's JOURNEY TO LOS ANGELES!
55DSL found their Junior Lucky Bastard and at the moment she's livin it up in Los Angeles! Watch her video as she gets ready to go crazy in Los Angeles! Read about all of her adventures on her blog: www.55DSL.com/blog
created by Charlene Davies 55DSL found their Junior Lucky Bastard and at the moment she's livin it up in Los Angeles! Watch her video as she gets ready to g... more -
55DSL Spring Summer 08 Collection Video
55DSL's Spring/Summer 2008 is vividly colourful and graphically bold, reflecting our sportswear heritage. It's a practical and immediate collection, easy-going in character but balanced by strong military styling and technical detailing to ensure that there's always a subliminal aggression. 55DSL's Spring/Summer 2008 is vividly colourful and graphically bold, reflecting our sportswear heritage. It's a practical a... more
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School Bus May Not Come For Your Kids This Year
Families aren't the only ones examining their driving habits as gas prices climb. Municipal governments, police departments and school districts are also tightening their belts, as budgets get stretched by high fuel costs, the Los Angeles Times reports today.
Expect to be hearing about the issue now, as your local governments cut back ... or later, when they ask you to increase their budgets at tax time.
In suburban areas like Seattle's Northshore district, the Times reports, school officials are asking children to walk farther to their bus stops so districts can squeeze a few more miles per gallon.
The scaling back of bus routes could be an inconvenience to parents, but provided there's a safe sidewalk to use, a little extra walk won't hurt most students. Reacting to the new bus route by dropping kids off in the family SUV would not be the best solution, from an environmental perspective; reducing unnecessary school bus trips is. Older diesel school buses can pump out twice the asthma-inducing pollution of a tractor trailer. (Click here for an analysis of the greenest ways to get your kid to school.)
Diesel, which runs most school buses, has been at or near all-time high prices per gallon, and currently sits at an average of about $4.76 a gallon. Gasoline prices this weekend hit a new record, of nearly $4.09 a gallon, on average. That has some police departments eliminating patrols or even putting their beat cops in golf carts to save on fuel. Families aren't the only ones examining their driving habits as gas prices climb. Municipal governments, police departments and s... more -
tens of thousands of Spanish truck drivers went on strike to protest high fuel pri...
Nearly half of the gasoline stations in the northern province of Catalonia were out of fuel Tuesday morning, and the regional government sent an emergency convoy of 20 trucks to replenish their tanks.
Three automotive plants - one each operated by Nissan, Mercedes Benz and SEAT - said they were suspending operations because of a lack of spare parts. Vendors warned of shortages in fruit, vegetables and meat at the sprawling wholesale market in Madrid - Mercamadrid - if the strike continued.
Around major cities Tuesday, traffic continued to crawl behind the so-called "snail protests" of slow-moving trucks.
Television news reports showed ships in the Balearic Islands marooned in port for lack of fuel and cargo. In the northern province of Galicia and southern ports of Andalucía, the truckers' strike, coupled with a fishing strike, left docks and fish stalls barren. Wholesale markets were surrounded by protesters. And shoppers were hoarding staples.
So far the administration of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has offered a package of measures to ease the impact of higher fuel prices on small businesses, including lower social security contributions and subsidies of €55 million, or $87 million, to older truckers who choose to abandon the industry. But Somoza said the truckers considered those measures insufficient. They are seeking government regulations guaranteeing a minimum price for their services, above fuel costs.
The picture is not supposed to go with this link. Sorry about that. Nearly half of the gasoline stations in the northern province of Catalonia were out of fuel Tuesday morning, and the regional governme... more -
Vi farò pescatori di uomini... aspettando che il diesel scenda...
E' in corso la protesta dei pescatori davanti al Ministero dei Trasporti che ospita la Direzione generale della Pesca.
Il caro diesel ha provocato distastri all'economia del settore peschereccio.
l 10 % dei pescatori italiani sono qui oggi... escludendo i marinai...sono tanti... vi assicuro...
E intanto tra fischi e urla aspettano un incontro con il Ministro.
Capisco le considerazioni pesca sì pesca no...
ma qui il problema è che siamo un mondo in mano ad un manipolo di petrolieri, e ricordo ai più scettici che non solo i pescatori, ma i ristoranti di sushi (sono in crescita ve ne siete accorti?), i ristoratori di pesce, i supermercati, i mercati... i vegetariani... insomma se la risorsa è troppo sfruttata non è tappandosi gli occhi davanti ai problemi e dineggiando tutto e tutti che si risolve.
I pesci sono pochi per l'inquinamento, non solo per il depaperamento... e pure grazie a tutti gli appassionati che d'estate si mettono a pescare catturando le specie piccole... insomma chiudere il file "protesta dei pescatori" con un "meno male se pesca de meno" mi sembra un offesa all'ntelligenza di .... tutti
Oddio.. se erano giapponesi.... forse... ma quelli puntano solo alle balene! E' in corso la protesta dei pescatori davanti al Ministero dei Trasporti che ospita la Direzione generale della Pesca. ... more -
"Boomtown: America's Biggest Inland Oil Discovery In 50 Years"
"What happens when an oil field as big as any in the Middle East is discovered in the desolate border towns of Montana and North Dakota?"
By Zach Dundas// GOOD Magazine
Photo by Brian Paumier
The story started out in a Montana newspaper, then grew into a minor legend: An unnamed rancher out in the state’s far east, a sparsely populated town along the North Dakota border, received his first royalty check for crude oil pumped out of his pastureland. Oil is the big news in this area, which the locals call MonDak; on both sides of the border, new wells can mean life-changing money for the families who own some of the toughest, driest farm and ranch land in the country.
So the story goes that the farmer opened the envelope and looked at the check, the first quarterly installment. He read the amount, read it a second time, then he sent the check back. He must have thought the damn fools had put the decimal point in the wrong place—$1.1 million, an unfathomable fortune, just couldn’t be right.
The tale circulated this fall in and around Sidney, a town of 5,000 people that anchors a huge swath of eastern Montana’s gold and slate-gray hills. Sidney is not part of the Montana where movie stars buy trophy ranches: temperatures swing from minus 40 degrees in the winter to 110 in the summer, and no one would confuse recreation with the battle to squeeze a living out of the land.
The town also happens to sit at the epicenter of the biggest inland oil discovery in the United States in 50 years. Two miles below the surface lies a stratum of oil known as the Bakken formation, holding an epic haul of crude—some surveys suggest up to 200 billion barrels, a near-Saudi-sized reserve. And since the end of 2000, when new drilling technology and rising prices combined to unleash the find, Montana and North Dakota have become the underground rock stars of American oil, among the few states recording production increases. With oil prices soaring above $100 a barrel, it’s like giant vaults of cash opened beneath the MonDak soil...
Full story at link.
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GOOD Magazine
This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ "What happens when an oil field as big as any in the Middle East is discovered in the desolate border towns of Montana and North ... more -
Diesel Ads - Global Warming Ready
Diesel, the Italian clothing manufacturer, has been raising the heat with a provocative advertising campaign, “Global Warming Ready”, launched at the end of January. A series of newspaper, magazine and billboard advertisements shows models posing in Diesel clothing in a world affected by raised water levels and temperatures.
The Ads are beautifully brilliant and disturbing. Diesel, the Italian clothing manufacturer, has been raising the heat with a provocative advertising campaign, “Global Warming Ready”, ... more -
Toyota Prius proves a gas guzzler in a race with the BMW 520d
The Toyota hybrid is hailed as an eco-paragon, so how does it fare against a big BMW?
"To find out we set a challenge: to drive a Prius to Geneva using motorways and town driving. The direct route is 460 miles but we drove almost 100 miles further to give the Prius the advantage of running in urban conditions where its petrol-electric drivetrain comes into its own.
We took along a conventionally powered car – a diesel BMW executive saloon – for comparison and drove both cars an identical number of miles (545)." The Toyota hybrid is hailed as an eco-paragon, so how does it fare against a big BMW? ... more -
Stock Peugeot 308 Achieves 90.75 MPG on Australian Roads.
This lightweight, high efficiency car already exists. When will we in the US start demanding cars like this? When our Francophobia subsides?
"Peugeot Automobiles Australia’s Managing Director, Mr. Rob Dommerson was clearly impressed with John and Helen’s achievements, 'One of the most pleasing aspects of this fantastic result with the Peugeot 308 was the fact that we achieved it in a ‘real world’ situation. They drove via the normal highways that people would use when heading around the country, in a fashion that most Australians would be completely familiar with when they take their annual holidays. Too often, long distance driving attempts are made on closed test tracks, or in the empty country side along vast stretches of long straight roads.'" This lightweight, high efficiency car already exists. When will we in the US start demanding cars like this? When our Francophobia sub... more -
Volkswagen's 69.9-MPG Diesel Hybrid
According to Auto Bild, the hybrid Golf will get 69.9 mpg and emit 90 g/km of carbon dioxide. An earlier report by Britain's Auto Express said 89 g/km, but either way that's less than the 104 g/km emitted by the Prius and 116 emitted by the Honda Civic Hybrid. According to Auto Bild, the hybrid Golf will get 69.9 mpg and emit 90 g/km of carbon dioxide. An earlier report by Britain's Auto... more
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Goodbuy Gas?
As the debate over alternative fuel continues, some drivers aren't waiting for greener options-- they're creating them.
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Microwaves + Vacuum + Tires = Diesel
"With 50 cents' worth of electricity, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he can make a 14-inch car tire into 1.2 gallons of diesel, 7.5 pounds of carbon black, 50 cubic feet of combustible gas and two pounds of get this high-strength steel." "With 50 cents' worth of electricity, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he can make a 14-inch car tire into 1.2 gallon... more
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Greasel
Learn from this Athens, OH man what it is like to run your car off of others people's garbage. That's right, they used to have to pay people to haul away their cooking grease and now he takes it for free. Not only that, after some straining, he can run his car on the waste cooking oil. Wouldn't it be nice to say the last time you stopped at a gas station was several THOUSAND miles ago? Well he can.
This pod was created by:
STEVEN COLLIER
BRANDON FLAYLER
NORA RYE
BRIAN ROBERTS
JK WILSON Learn from this Athens, OH man what it is like to run your car off of others people's garbage. That's right, they used to h... more -
NEWS FLASH By Dr. Fred Bell
(As you spool down the page, you find this little article)
"It would be nice to go back to what America used for petroleum at the turn of the century to run its vehicles and light its lamps, Hemp oil. My father, Allen Bell worked for Henry Ford senior whom hated the petroleum companies. At his Estate, Fair Lane, located in Dearborn, Michigan Henry had 35 acres of hemp trees that he derived his fuel source to operate his eighteen company vehicles.
"Rudolph Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, designed the diesel to operate on Hemp oil. The Hemp tree produces four times more oxygen than a tree, thereby solving the greenhouse effect, produces no toxic exhaust, only Co-2 and water. The plants use carbon dioxide, Co-2 to make oxygen. IT is estimated that less than 20 million acres of farmland would supply Americas fuel requirements annually. It costs just pennies to refine Hemp oil into Hemp fuel. Smog devices would no longer be needed on engines. To pump and go, all that is necessary is a simple computer mapping change on fuel injected cars and trucks, and a small carburetor jet change for older models and we would be set to operate an efficient, nontoxic and inexpensive alternate energy source. Do your own research and you will find this message to be quite factual as well.
"This is very important. We are encouraging YOU to contact your Congressmen, Senators and News media." (As you spool down the page, you find this little article) ... more -
Power Shift Rally Unites Young Environmentalists
'The Revolution Starts Right Now'
Student activists from across the country gather in Washington, D.C., to put the spotlight on environmental issues.
Thousands of students from across the country gather to shift attention to climate change and other green causes. 'The Revolution Starts Right Now' ... more -
Pimp Your (Biodiesel) Ride
A team of Philadelphia high school students explain how they souped up an environmentally conscious car -- and made it smell nice too.
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