Like many others, I've posted about- and been intrigued by- the evolution of alternative fuel research. It's gone from wealthy investors pouring wasted money into corn ethanol(while many us us bemusedly pointed out that even hemp would be cheaper and yield more oil than frickin corn), to somewhat-promising early discoveries about algae as a feedstock, to...this?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/...
In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent for "a proprietary organism" – a genetically adapted E. coli bacterium – that feeds solely on carbon dioxide and excretes 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."
Unlike "biofuels", such as the wasteful corn ethanol and the environment-destroying palm-oils, this is a process that requires no 'feedstock'. It sounds like science at its best(yeah, America...science..you know, the process of discovery that's given you every modern convenience you own?):
Aside from hungry, gene-altered micro-organisms, it requires only carbon dioxide and sunshine to manufacture crude. And water: whether fresh, brackish or salt. With these "inputs," it mimics photosynthesis, the process by which green leaves use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds. Indeed, the company describes its manufacture of fossil fuels as "artificial photosynthesis."
Joule says it now has "a library" of fossil-fuel organisms at work in its Massachusetts labs, each engineered to produce a different fuel. It has "proven the process," has produced ethanol (for example) at a rate equivalent to 10,000 U.S. gallons an acre a year. It anticipates that this yield could hit 25,000 gallons an acre a year when scaled for commercial production, equivalent to roughly 800 barrels of crude an acre a year.
Pundits, laymen, and your all-around "non-scientists" like to have someone 'important' to co-sign on breaking developments like these. This article addresses that by naming two bigshots: U.S. Senator John Kerry and George Church. Who's that?
George Church, the Harvard Medical School geneticist who helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984.
Sounds like this Church fellow knows a thing or two about genetics.
More:
Joule began to generate buzz toward the end of 2010. When U.S. Senator John Kerry toured the company’s labs in October, he called the technology "a potential game-changer." He noted, ironically, that the company’s science is so advanced that it can’t qualify for federal grants or subsidies: The government’s definition of biofuels requires the use of raw-material feedstock.
In December, the World Technology Network named the company the world’s top corporate player in bio-energy research. Biofuels Digest named it one of the world’s "50 hottest" bio-energy enterprises, moving it ahead 10 places in the past year (from 32nd to 22nd). Selected from 1,000 eligible companies around the world, 37 of the "50 hottest" are American-based – another reason not to count out the U.S. just yet.
Didn't see any diaries on this company. What are your thoughts?