These guys are using re-engineered e.coli to produce oil...
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it looks promising if they can condense and consolidate the production method- but 205 sq. miles of factory to produce the stuff is a bit much.
I'm surprised I haven't heard more about oil shale- the largest oil deposits in the world are in the United States, under the Rockies.
http://www.planetizen.com/node/21110sigpic89 M3 -
That is not really that much, considering that is the estimated amount of machinery needed to provide all of America's oil supply.
Would we be able to provide a consistent supply of organic material? That would be the more difficult part of the equation. Non-photosynthetic bacteria, like the type they are using, are not primary producers, they are consumers. So they will also need a steady input of organic matter. We would need to harvest primary producers, like cyanobacteria, protists, or plants, and then throw them in the vat for the bacteria to consume to produce the petroleum. We need to lock up all that CO2 we have released over the past one hundred years, before we continue to release more.sigpicComment
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^^^^^^^^^^^^
Do you really think the tiny amount of CO2 that we have put up is really doing anything. I gathered you were smarter than that.The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. -Alexis de TocquevilleOriginally posted by Fusion
The Desire to Save Humanity is Always a False Front for the Urge to Rule it- H. L. Mencken
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants.
William Pitt-Comment
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It is not affecting us now, but we would need to find ways to sequester some C for those petroleum producing bacteria. I already know of a way to create an ice age if the gaseous carbon ever reaches levels too high, iron fertilization of the southern oceans. Drop that shit down deep.sigpicComment
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The 205 Sq mile number looks menacing but if you spread it out all over the country its nothing. A single large location would be the worst way to do this. You would have to transport large amounts of biowaste from all over, process, refine it and ship it back to where you brought the raw materials from. That is very wasteful.
Smaller factories in areas where the raw materials are created would cut out much of the transportation costs before and after refinement. The lumber industry in the Pac Northwest would provide timber based waste, the farming industry in the midwest would provide its own by products. Every locale has its own useable waste. Keeping it local makes sense.
I am going to watch this. It is the most promising research I have seen. Plus as a homebrewer who keeps strains of yeast alive it interests me with its simplicity.Comment
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