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Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 7:48:06 AM

FirmhandKY

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Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'

The Times
June 14, 2008
Chris Ayres

****

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”.

...

What is most remarkable about what they are doing is that instead of trying to reengineer the global economy – as is required, for example, for the use of hydrogen fuel – they are trying to make a product that is interchangeable with oil. The company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.

...

Inside LS9’s cluttered laboratory – funded by $20 million of start-up capital from investors including Vinod Khosla, the Indian-American entrepreneur who co-founded Sun Micro-systems – Mr Pal explains that LS9’s bugs are single-cell organisms, each a fraction of a billionth the size of an ant. They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli, but LS9 modifies them by custom-de-signing their DNA. “Five to seven years ago, that process would have taken months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says. “Now it can take weeks and cost maybe $20,000.”

...

For fermentation to take place you need raw material, or feedstock, as it is known in the biofuels industry. Anything will do as long as it can be broken down into sugars, with the byproduct ideally burnt to produce electricity to run the plant.

...

Using genetically modified bugs for fermentation is essentially the same as using natural bacteria to produce ethanol, although the energy-intensive final process of distillation is virtually eliminated because the bugs excrete a substance that is almost pump-ready.

...

“Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we’ll be working on the design and construction of a commercial-scale facility to open in 2011,” says Mr Pal, adding that if LS9 used Brazilian sugar cane as its feedstock, its fuel would probably cost about $50 a barrel.

****

Sounds like "peak oil" may become a myth.

Firm

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 8:04:55 AM

FullCircle

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quote:

ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY
The company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.

Exciting if true but highly unlikely to be carbon neutral let alone negative in my opinion.

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 8:09:28 AM

Termyn8or

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I gotta laugh. And you put down my perpetual motion machine.

I can see this shit now. Instead of oil refineries we got bug farms. People are encouraged not to use pesticides anymore but to use traps, which will bring their pests to the farm alive.

So instead of recycling beer cans people will be gathering bugs. In the country that put a Man on the moon.

So he will have the tank full in a month, so then he can drive a couple of days. Then he can sit home with his bugs for another three weeks.

Kidding aside, the only way they are going to make this a viable form of energy is to figure out and use the chemical processes. Just having bugs isn't going to do it. Interesting, but not quite on the table as a viable alternative energy source.

T

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 8:24:56 AM

TheHeretic

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I don't know that the title quite matched the article, Firm. If they are using sugarcane as the feedstock, what is that $50 barrel of fuel going to do to the price of sugar?

I'm sticking with biodiesel from microalgae.

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 8:51:32 AM

Sanity

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There is more than enough desert ground that's not being utilized all over the planet which could be used to grow the needed biomass for this kind of alternate energy product. With nuclear power we could run desalinization plants next to the oceans and seas and pump sufficient water inland to grow these crops without infringing on the global food supply.

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 10:08:00 AM

LotusSong

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quote:

ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

I LOVE it! I can't wait to hear America tell OPEC "We don't need your shit. we have our own!"

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 12:20:13 PM

FirmhandKY

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

I don't know that the title quite matched the article, Firm. If they are using sugarcane as the feedstock, what is that $50 barrel of fuel going to do to the price of sugar?

I'm sticking with biodiesel from microalgae.

According to the article, any bio-mass will do. Sugar cane was just an example to show the costs even if a commercial crop was used.

Firm

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 12:24:31 PM

FirmhandKY

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

I gotta laugh. And you put down my perpetual motion machine.

I can see this shit now. Instead of oil refineries we got bug farms. People are encouraged not to use pesticides anymore but to use traps, which will bring their pests to the farm alive.

So instead of recycling beer cans people will be gathering bugs. In the country that put a Man on the moon.

So he will have the tank full in a month, so then he can drive a couple of days. Then he can sit home with his bugs for another three weeks.

Kidding aside, the only way they are going to make this a viable form of energy is to figure out and use the chemical processes. Just having bugs isn't going to do it. Interesting, but not quite on the table as a viable alternative energy source.

T

Different kind of "bugs", Termyn8or.

Think beer and alcoholic beverages. Instead of refineries, for petroleum you'd have breweries.

Gives a 'hole 'nother meaning to "micro-brewery"!

Kudzu vines could become an endangered species!

Firm

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 3:34:45 PM

LadyLynx

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Well the thing is guys, there is no miracle cure, when it comes to fuel. Gas or rather oil was not supposed to be a cure ethier, it was meant to be a temporary means to an end. I would be willing to bet, no matter what fuel source someone comes up with, that there would be an upsurge of the costs of the production of the product, or leading to it. ( like the sugarcane.) And, not to forget, that there will undoubtably be those who will seek to gain a monopoly on the market, reap the rewards. (sorry for the longwinded sentences, and I hope it makes sense)

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 4:14:02 PM

bipolarber

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It's an interesting idea... but I'd be much more excited if I knew how much Brazillian sugar we'd need in order to supply the US with an appreciable fraction of "Gas 2.0." It might become another part of the solution, but not an overall answer.

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 4:56:17 PM

FirmhandKY

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quote:

ORIGINAL: bipolarber

It's an interesting idea... but I'd be much more excited if I knew how much Brazillian sugar we'd need in order to supply the US with an appreciable fraction of "Gas 2.0." It might become another part of the solution, but not an overall answer.

In the article ...

***

For fermentation to take place you need raw material, or feedstock, as it is known in the biofuels industry. Anything will do as long as it can be broken down into sugars, with the byproduct ideally burnt to produce electricity to run the plant.

The company is not interested in using corn as feedstock, given the much-publicised problems created by using food crops for fuel, such as the tortilla inflation that recently caused food riots in Mexico City. Instead, different types of agricultural waste will be used according to whatever makes sense for the local climate and economy: wheat straw in California, for example, or woodchips in the South.

****

Brazilian sugar NOT REQUIRED. Nor any other food source.

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/15/2008 7:12:11 PM

pinksugarsub

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quote:

ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'

The Times
June 14, 2008
Chris Ayres

****

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”.

...

What is most remarkable about what they are doing is that instead of trying to reengineer the global economy – as is required, for example, for the use of hydrogen fuel – they are trying to make a product that is interchangeable with oil. The company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.

...

Inside LS9’s cluttered laboratory – funded by $20 million of start-up capital from investors including Vinod Khosla, the Indian-American entrepreneur who co-founded Sun Micro-systems – Mr Pal explains that LS9’s bugs are single-cell organisms, each a fraction of a billionth the size of an ant. They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli, but LS9 modifies them by custom-de-signing their DNA. “Five to seven years ago, that process would have taken months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says. “Now it can take weeks and cost maybe $20,000.”

...

For fermentation to take place you need raw material, or feedstock, as it is known in the biofuels industry. Anything will do as long as it can be broken down into sugars, with the byproduct ideally burnt to produce electricity to run the plant.

...

Using genetically modified bugs for fermentation is essentially the same as using natural bacteria to produce ethanol, although the energy-intensive final process of distillation is virtually eliminated because the bugs excrete a substance that is almost pump-ready.

...

“Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we’ll be working on the design and construction of a commercial-scale facility to open in 2011,” says Mr Pal, adding that if LS9 used Brazilian sugar cane as its feedstock, its fuel would probably cost about $50 a barrel.

****

Sounds like "peak oil" may become a myth.

Firm

How amazing, FirmhandKY.

Who even thinks to look for such things?

pinksugarsub

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/16/2008 2:58:28 PM

windchymes

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It would be great if those "bugs" could eat up that pig shit that's lying around fermenting in Holland, and get a symbiotic kind of thing going on on the planet.

And yes, they're not talking about insects, they're "one-celled"....think amoeba.

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RE: Running your car on bugshit? ;0) - 6/16/2008 4:39:19 PM

UtopianRanger

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quote:

Running your car on bugshit? ;0)

After reading the story and seeing you as the originator of this thread, I have to wonder if you and Sugar have become drinking buddies....

- R

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