MSU nets grant to study fuel from fungi
Bozeman, Montana, 12/26/10
Angie Tomsheck, enrolled at Montana State University, has discovered a eucalyptol-producing fungus. According to this story, eucalyptol was only previously known from eucalyptus bark, and has potential to be a gasoline alternative. The fungus was one of a group of samples collected by her research professor in the Canary Islands (off the coast of NW Africa). It was collected from a laurel tree.
The two have written about this discovery for the journal Microbiology and their work has gone immediately to publication (presumably in January?).
And at least one person has already used eucalyptol as gasoline - Strobel put it in his Honda 110 motorcycle and drove it around town. The eucalyptol worked just fine as an additive, he said. And, if the compound meets its potential, its far-reaching impacts could include less dependency on foreign oil, less pollution and new jobs.
I find this article confusing, in the light of this from Wikipedia:
Eucalyptol comprises up to 90 percent of the essential oil of some species of the generic product Eucalyptus oil,[1] hence the common name of the compound. It is also found in camphor laurel, bay leaves, tea tree, mugwort, sweet basil, wormwood, rosemary, sage and other aromatic plant foliage. Eucalyptol with a purity from 99.6 to 99.8 percent can be obtained in large quantities by fractional distillation of eucalyptus oil.
But newspapers don't always get science right, and I would guess the significance is that it's a fungus that is manufacturing the stuff, and that fungi are easier and faster to grow than plants. But will it make eucalyptol when it's not growing on a laurel tree?
(crossposted from Right of Assembly)