OPEC beware! Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

[emad]

From The Times
June 14, 2008
Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol
Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'.

"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”.

Mr Pal is a senior director of LS9, one of several companies in or near Silicon Valley that have spurned traditional high-tech activities such as software and networking and embarked instead on an extraordinary race to make $140-a-barrel oil (£70) from Saudi Arabia obsolete. “All of us here – everyone in this company and in this industry, are aware of the urgency,” Mr Pal says.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

[Joanne98]

1. Here's their website

http://www.ls9.com/

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[Glorfindel]

3. Verrry clever! Recommend with enthusiasm

n/t

[BlueJazz]

4. Bugs Huh?...I'm going to write a Book. "The Cockroach...Our New Friend"

[ashling]

5. Now if they could get them to eat garbage

-the kind that ends up in landfills -

[jody]

6. Or - the kind that ends up in politics - n/t

[satya]

18. The technology to turn trash into oil already exists.

They used to say it was cheaper to drill for oil, but that was 5 years ago.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/19/eveningnews/main569133.shtml

I don't know how this affects our carbon footprint, though.

[IndyOp]

7. Genetic engineering + More greenhouse gas in atmosphere to speed climate crisis. Great. (n/t)

:sarcasm:

[ashling]

8. Maybe the get make a bug

that eats CO2

[emad]

9. Eat CO2....er, like trees?

>?

[trotsky]

23. Well not quite.

Pumping up oil that's been locked in rock, storing carbon for millions of years, then burning it - that releases more greenhouse gases.

This technology would simply recycle the carbon that's already around. Poop has to come from somewhere.

[barbtries]

10. stories like these

give me hope. we'll get through. bushies notwithstanding.

[jwirr]

11. Does it produce CO2 when burned? in its production process.

[The River]

13. Maybe You Missed This

part of the article?

"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."

[many a good man]

12. The bugs will eat the entire earth and turn it into a pool of oil

A fitting end to our civilization.

[truedelphi]

14. A new revised telling of the old King Midas tale

With oil replacing gold in the scenarios

[bluesmail]

15. Can't wait to get an update, eagerly recommending. Thanks n/t

[formercia]

16. Not profitable if you figure in the cost of all of the tiny porta-pottys

and the labor to train the little buggers to use them.

[Nihil]

19. !

:spray: :spank:

[formercia]

20. Satire

or have you not figured that out yet.:evilgrin:

How do you think the oil got there in the first place.


I think it's bullshit.

[Nihil]

21. It was just the unexpected post ...

... that made me come the closest to a literal :spray: in ages.
I love that sort of humour so thanks!
:toast:

[formercia]

22. I'm from the Government and I'm here to monitor your contract.

I have put on my special contract representative's helmet that blocks out a reason, common sense and understanding of fair value.

Feed me a hamburger, supply me with a cheap hooker and I am at your beck and call.

Why should I care? It's not my money.

[hvn_nbr_2]

17. And their slogan will be "Put a microbe in your tank!" nt

[skoalyman]

24. would be weird if they turned out the be the gray goo they always

talked about :freak: