[w00tw00t]

sounds too good to be true but.... just imagine.. if it were... WOW!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1871149/

In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent for “a proprietary organism” – a genetically engineered cyanobacterium that produces 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.”

“[this] technology can produce virtually unlimited quantities of fossil fuels with zero dependence on raw materials, agricultural land, crops or fresh water. It ends the hazards of oil exploration and oil production. It takes us to the unthinkable: liquid hydrocarbons on demand.”

Also imagine if this bacteria leaked into the oceans... lol... the oceans turned into crude oil!! end of life!

[wisesoul]

Not a big seafood guy anyways. If the ocean turned into crude oil, that would be awesome

[w00tw00t]

just imagine... no more bloody toyota priuses.. no more of this bloody eletric car nonsense!! ... bring on the V12s ... YAY!

[montreal red]

wow... i hope they arent just putting up a show... this could be a real game changer

[Lowest_Frequency]

Originally Posted by montreal red

wow... i hope they arent just putting up a show... this could be a real game changer

I hate articles like this. This is why I stopped reading science magazines and such. Articles are all spouting the what-ifs and never give any definition. What is stopped this from going into production tomorrow? They spouted a ton of numbers of what it can do but it doesn't mean jack crap if its not in production. Just like 95% of the articles, this could very well just die as another failed idea touted as 'game-changer'.
</rant>

[.:bHd:.]

too many rich people control oil. This will never go through

[NYCGP]

Originally Posted by .:bHd:.

too many rich people control oil. This will never go through

This.... it is so very sad. But it is the world we live in.

[scott@bmwhn]

Originally Posted by .:bHd:.

too many rich people control oil. This will never go through

Those brilliant scientist are probably already dead. But hey, think of the millions of jobs insured by their demise

[Artmasterx]

This company was started by a reputable venture cap company in Cambridge, MA, so it is not complete junk and BS.

I would imagine that it has similar issues with using algae to produce biofuels, mainly that it is hard to get "dense" production because the organism need room move and access to sunlight, which means large areas of pools in which to grow them.

I have no doubt that they have microbes that can directly excrete something that can be used as a biodiesel or biofuel, but the production rates could be very small right now as well. I have no idea what there production rates are, but if it takes a 100 m^2 of sunlight-exposed area to produce a few barrels of oil per day, you clearly have issues scaling the technology up to meaningful levels. Maybe their production rates are good... who knows.

Typically, these systems also have issues with separating the biofuel from the water in which the microbe grow. Technically it is easy to do, but practically it requires a lot of energy to do the distillation... maybe that is in their $30/bbl figure.

They also say that only sunlight and CO2 is needed, which is probably a bit of BS. You definitely need water (or something) to provide the hydrogen to make hydrocarbons, and water consumption is not going to be a trivial concern in the future. You also probably need to fertilize or feed the microbes as well, which will require sugars, etc. (this could also be the hydrogen source instead of water... I am not sure of the details of microbe metabolism).

Regardless, it is a good idea worth pursuing, but don't expect anything to change in the near future.