by Robert Wilkinson
Well, I've heard of stranger things! If this one goes the distance, it's bye bye drilling, bye bye oil spills, and bye bye oil monopolists! By all means, read on!
This news story titled "Mass. company making diesel with sun, water, CO2" comes from the AP's Jay Lindsay, and if the technology works on a broad scale, promises a true revolution in how we generate fuel. This biotechnology company, Joule Unlimited, claims to have "invented a genetically-engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide."
They claim that many of their claims have already been validated, and of course the usual skeptics have all weighed in with no specific refutations but a lot of negativity about "wait and see." Here are a few bits from the article, which you should of course check out for yourselves:
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels....Work to create fuel from solar energy has been done for decades, such as by making ethanol from corn or extracting fuel from algae. But Joule says they've eliminated the middleman that's makes producing biofuels on a large scale so costly.
That middleman is the "biomass," such as the untold tons of corn or algae that must be grown, harvested and destroyed to extract a fuel that still must be treated and refined to be used. Joule says its organisms secrete a completed product, already identical to diesel fuel or ethanol, then live on to keep producing it at remarkable rates.
Joule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel full per acre annually, over four times more than the most efficient algal process for making fuel. And they say they can do it at $30 a barrel.
A key for Joule is the cyanobacterium it chose, which is found everywhere and is less complex than algae, so it's easier to genetically manipulate, said biologist Dan Robertson, Joule's top scientist.
The organisms are engineered to take in sunlight and carbon dioxide, then produce and secrete ethanol or hydrocarbons — the basis of various fuels, such as diesel — as a byproduct of photosynthesis....
...The flat, solar-panel style "bioreactors" that house the cyanobacterium are modules, meaning they can build arrays at facilities as large or small as land allows, the company says. The thin, grooved panels are designed for maximum light absorption, and also so Joule can efficiently collect the fuel the bacteria secrete.
One scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory opines that the "technology is exciting but unproven, and their claims of efficiency are undercut by difficulties they could have just collecting the fuel their organism is producing," while another says "the four letter word that's the biggest stumbling block is whether it `will' work..."
Another scientist with a company also involved in such things is of the opinion that there will be difficulties in recovering the fuel from the water involved in its creation, but of course offers nothing to advance or mitigate that argument. It very well could be that the technology is already there, or that some other smart person will come up with something that could advance this biotechnology while also serving to help clean up the oil spills already fouling beaches all over the world.
In any case, the article states "The company plans to break ground on a 10-acre demonstration facility this year, and Sims says they could be operating commercially in less than two years." Win or lose, it seems this is on a fast track, so stay tuned for further developments!
While I'm not very stoked about our continued use of fuels that pollute the air, water, and Earth, hopefully if this gets cranked up the price of fuels will drop, and that would be a most welcome thing to restore the health of the world economies. And since we'd have less drilling, the number of toxic spills would drop, fewer wildlife preserves would be ruined, and we might just have a chance on restoring some degree of environmental health. We can only affirm that this company gets it right, and doesn't have its gears jammed by one or more of the big boys polluting our beautiful Earth.
Just another possible breakthrough at the end of an old Age and the threshold of a new one!
© Copyright 2011 Robert Wilkinson
Patenting of living organisms goes much further than bacteria, it includes seeds, plants and now animals. The unknown consequences of unleashing GMO, biotech, genetically engineered organisms into our environment has an extremely high risk factor.
For further information and education on the issue of GMO please visit the site: The Center for Food Safety. For gaining insight into the patenting of life, the book BIOPIRACY by Vanda Shiva is an excellent read.
Posted by: tmac | May 09, 2011 at 08:22 PM
Hi tmac - I agree that much is left to be learned about responsible bioengineering given the Pandora's Box of GMO things already cut loose on our world. And I also agree that the law of unintended consequences has already begun to change everything about what we believe is a good way to increase our food supply. We should not be allowing corporations to patent anything connected with food or life. That said, I suspect we'll see some fairly miraculous things in the near future that could very well help humanity rather than continue the insanity that has prevailed up to now. As it is said, technology is neither bad nor good; it's in its application that we see benefits or horrors. I personally believe that profits have no place when it comes to the fundamentals of human existence, but of course I have no personal power to change how corporations have structured unsustainable economies other than not to participate AND figure out ways to create or sustain alternatives.
Posted by: Robert | May 11, 2011 at 01:24 PM