Oil 2.0: bacteria that excrete crude oil
These genetically-modified bacteria eat wood chips and grass and excrete oil. The process is carbon negative (meaning that burning the resulting oil releases less carbon than the plants pulled in from the environment) and neither cars nor our distribution system has to be modified in any way. This is an exciting potential solution to the Middle East oil dependency.
BTW, does anybody actually believe that there are terrific mpg-increasing technologies available, but that the auto/energy industry bought up the patents and is sitting on them? That always sounded like urban legend to me.
UK Times: “Ten years ago I could never have imagined I’d be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. “I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to – especially the ones coming out of business school – this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into.”
He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.
Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us. Not that Mr Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls “renewable petroleum”. After that, he grins, “it’s a brave new world”…
In some regions they burn cow manure. Big deal. And I always love it when researchers act like they “invented” a new organism. The real crime is the patenting of organisms. If this weren’t in the works this guy would never be getting the coverage.
Sometimes I excrete (out of my arse) what appears to be an oily discharge.
Why doesn’t anyone ever write articles about this?
Re: Oil Discharge
Because no one cares to hear about your buggery.
Where can we get ‘em? These would make a good addition to my farm (if it’s not another hoax) Wonder what people need to eat in order to be able to do this? Bacteria shouldn’t have anything on us producing oil. Human butts ought to be even better than the bacteria butts at excreting oil.
Depending on what garbage people eat humans are able to excrete high amounts of natural gas as well as an oily discharge.
Or you could just eliminate the middleman, or middle cow or middle patented microorganism and throw the garbage directly into a fire and burn it that way. You also need a stirling engine. http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Bf6mhfeUH0
I can solve the energy crisis. All I need is power.
http://tectonicforces.blogspot.com/search?q=temptations+power
it seems that everytime there’s a new development in science the old (in mind) folks start saying it won’t work. Of course the Oil company spokesmen monitor these developments very closely and attempt to throw a wet blanket over them so that they can continue to make exorbitant profits!
. . . Nice try.