In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. bio-tech 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.”
We’re not talking “bio-fuels” – not, at any rate, in the usual sense of the word. The Joule technology requires no “feedstock,” no corn, no wood, no garbage, no algae. 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.”
If this is on the level, it would be fantastic.
Found by Cinàedh.
An update from the Boston Business Journal found by jeffreysdailey.
If true and there aren’t a whole lot of “if onlys” its a great thing.
Good:
We can tell the Arab assholes to shove it.
It east CO2, so it will be at worst, carbon neutral, and, if used to replace actual out of the ground fossil fuels, it will reduce overall carbon emissions.
It’s being developed in a relatively free country (USA).
Bad:
A “secretive” corporation. Never trust ’em.
A patent for a life form. Shouldn’t exist.
These two add up to very high prices. At least until the Chinese subvert the patent. :).
Let’s hope this is for real!
Why we will soon pay $10 gal gas –
I suppose Obama got in his time machine and caused the 2007 record price spike.
“McCain Palin: Drill Baby Drill + Recession = $1.00 gas”
President Superman = Free gas for everybody!
I can make shit up too.
#34
You do realize that Obama’s “extending unemployment benefits” did nothing for over a million 99ers. Many are hungry, cold and pissed-off this winter.
They act in YOUR name.
#38 said,
“Public pronouncements are just telling you what you want to hear…what his czars are doing, that is the Obama program…and its not about energy creation…its about us becoming third world poor…probably for the sake of “economic justice” which is another way of saying “take that you bastards.””
Who are these czars you keep mentioning? I’m curious as to their names.
#33 Skeptic
Here’s a rough try to do the calc. They claim 15,000 gal of diesel fuel/acre per year. The US uses about 18.8 millom barrels of oil a day. There are 42 gallons in a barrel and 365 days in a year.
I make the assumption that a barrel of oil is equivalent to a barrel of diesel fuel which is probably inaccurate but it should give us a ballpark number.
When I crunch those numbers together I get 19.2 million acres to replace all of the USA’s oil needs.
The land would have to have adequate sun exposure so weather and seasonality will be factors in siting. Land use costs and impacts will be a major factor in whether this makes economic sense. Land use costs will also make a difference on whether the production would be distributed in populated areas or rural areas. Perhaps polar locations with long summer days. Or perhaps tropical areas would have an advantage.
That’s assuming the bugs can be successfully nurtured on massive scale.
In many ways this appears to be a cleverly designed artifical pond algae. Grows like algae and engineered to produce specific hydrocarbons as poop.
1. I foresee this or better process ((eg a sunlight free process so that hydrocarbon production can take place in huge vats)) being used for those end uses that require “oil” such as jet aircraft/plastics.
2. The math is easy to do==just multiple a few numbers together. Silly.
3. Development of electrical and hydrogen fuels to continue for their applications as well.
4. The key to EVERY issue raised here is cost of production: $30 a barrel==solves every problem.
5. And its carbon neutral or even negative if the plastic is made into long lived building products==and the process could be run to do just that.
Ha, ha. Even the dismally stoopid can’t stop the future.
My shades: 0-0
#40 It would probably keep you on the can 24/7 like dhiorrea. Basically, to go do anything else, you would need a cork…
If this is real, it would be blocked by the oil companies and the Arabs.
Both these groups would be strongly/violently against anything that supplanted their supremacy. They are the people that lie to us pretending that climate change is not true. They are just protecting their money.
Expect it to be bought up and shut down like so many other technical advances over the last 100+ years.
#44–Holdfast==extremely clever our corporate masters: keeping us all tied to oil when there is no oil?
Nice hat trick.
Pictures have an effect on the savage beast:
Just google images (algae biofuel):
http://google.com/images?q=algae+biofuel&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=836&bih=510
VASTLY more efficient than agricultural conversions. THAT and similar wasteful subsidies will be the “real” impediment to production======but not at $30 a barrel. Ha. ha. And better bugs to come.
I read 5 years ago this already then off the shelf process was basically waiting for the market price of oil to increase AND using the time to make better organisms. At the time, the high target inefficiency was the ENERGY it took to remove the hydrocarbons from the algae. If now the desired product is poop, then the sunlight will be providing that energy as well.
How long until SCIENCE will be accepted as our god? Still need a person, and not a process? ((The deevil of sinister corporations is already in place as the balance!!))
Stoopid Hoomans.
#45 Unless there is already microbes underground that is making new oil, there will be a decreasing quantity left.
Economics say that the less there is of something, the more it costs. In fact, scarcity increases profits much more than plentiful supplies.
A new source of oil – even if they owned it – would give them less money. Their interest seems to be maximum immediate profit. Long term considerations do not count.
From the pretty pictures:
http://cnet.com.au/algae-farm-in-mexico-to-produce-ethanol-in-2009-339289867.htm
and the company is still in business and hiring:
http://www.algenolbiofuels.com/jobs.htm
I am reminded of what is “always” the case: breaking news today is a rehash of what already occurred 5 years ago, which was demonstrated in a laboratory 20 years ago, which was discussed theoretically 50 years ago.
Progress: slow and constant==kinda like a steamroller over the idiocy expressed by all too many above. And your idiot vote counts the same as mine??????
Yea Veerily.
Holdfast==really? You can read the entire thread, maybe a link here or there, google on your own and yet you choose to play with your own poop? The algae laugh at you.
Stoopid Human.
Frankly, I have I hard time believing this but, if true, does it solve the global warming looming crisis?
On the pro-side, of course is that it consumes CO2.
But what are the emissions like? Are there other toxins?
I’ve heard fairly credible-sounding people claim that the creation of oil didn’t take nearly as long as conventional wisdom says.
(I’m pretty sure they weren’t young-earth creationists)
A discovery like this might back up their claims.
Greg–any “refined” product has exactly what the producer wants in it. Maybe they leave bad things in because it is cheaper but thats consistent with the fact that its all refined and purposeful.
What do you guess there is more than one way oil gets made in nature and certainly in the lab? See that religious mode of thinking sinking your boat===as in only one god/only one way? Yes, its quite a straightjacket in ways you don’t even recognize, but SATAN observes it plainly.
Foolishness is $10/gal: stupid.
This sounds very exciting although I’d like to see more details. Sounds too good to produce such high energy densities from such simple components.
If the Saudi-Bush oil cartel hold an emergency meeting in the near future, then I will be very optimistic
So Dallas==you ran the numbers comparing the total amount of energy falling on a square meter of land and the resulting hydrocarbon produced is 10% of the input making it very high density indeed as the input is FREE from the Sun? Life Form bio engineered for the desired purpose not possible to do until about 5 years ago and this is “simple” in your mind?
Words. Rhe – tor – ic.
Amusing how something can “sound” good but actually mean nothing? Just a nudge.
Could you imagine what this would do the world’s commodity markets?
*Splat*
According to the article, 1 acre can produce 15,000 gallons of fuel per year.
The US uses 900,000,000 gallons of fuel a DAY, or 328.5 billion gallons a year
That means we need 21.9 million acres of land, or 35,000 square miles, about the size of the state of Maine.
To put that in perspective, if we covered only 60 square miles of land with solar thermal plants, we could power the entire US with solar energy.
Bottom line I would not get my hopes up with this “miracle” process until we know what the EROEI is.
This would definitely help my oil short.
I believe there was speculation, some years ago, of a gene altered bug that could eat oil spills. But perhaps the possibility that the germs might somehow survive, and go on to consume other things in the oceans, stopped this. Hopefully these altered e-coli bugs wouldn’t end up in our food supply, and in us, and then generate oil in our lungs.
I’ve occasionally thought that gene altered microbes could be used to make milk, without cows. And meat protein, without livestock. That would make a lot of vegetarians happy. Right now, the only animal-less alternatives to these are Soy based products. Vegetarians (and possibly Vegans too) would probably have little objection to microbe produced foods, since Breads often contains yeast. Which they don’t object to eating, for either moral or dietary reasons. Plus output would be a constant, rather then subject to the weather. Only speculation in Commodities trading, would suffer. Since supply would always match demand.
If microbe made fuel oil is possible, speculation in oil futures will soon be at an end, too. The real question is, will this process be ALLOWED? Just as the manufacture of artificial diamonds, has been stifled over the years, by those who profit greatly by limiting natural diamond output.
#63–Glenn==your concern “makes sense” in a free floating detached from reality sort of way. The “entity” involved here is algae. It needs sunlight to grow and thrive, and to not be attacked by white blood cells and such? You are making me rethink my “grow in the dark in a big vat” scheme however.
Yes, such a simple mistake choosing light sensitive vs not light sensitive being the difference between a planet with or without mammals?
I wonder how many other variables like that are in fact in play or have otherwise been charted out and thought about?
“Food for Thought” ha, ha. Yes, we come to serve mankind.
bobbo,
Wow, bobbo, you went to great lengths to get some anti-religious bigotry into a discussion about alternative fuels! Bigotry can eat you up, if you are not careful.
Anyway, as for pollutants in gas –clearly lead was a pollutant the refiners put into gasoline.
But surely there are things they can’t get out of the product, either — at least not at a price the consumer can afford.
I am curious at the “net” effect this new fake-oil would have on global warming. In theory, it seems pretty great but there are ALWAYS consequences to everything, right?
I’m still skeptical about this whole story. Seems much too good to be true.
When did Alfred change his name to $10 gas?
Early in 1973, the law that capped the amount of oil imported into the US at 30% was repealed. After the embargo, the percentage of imported oil rose substantially – eventually over 50%.
Why not phase in a new law that lowers the imported oil percentage over time?
Substituting the $0.184/gallon federal gasoline tax with something else is tricky. Better economy cars and alternative fuels NEED to be taxed. The federal highway fund is going down and it has been replenished twice. The US needs to move away from automobiles, suburbs, exurbs, etc.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I can’t evaluate the science or the cost as that is out of my wheelhouse, but I can say that it sounds specious. And more to the point, if it were true, it would be the worst thing to happen to the environmental movement I could imagine. Right now, the only thing keeping global warming and environment toxification in check is the high cost — and growing shortage — of fossil fuels. Lower the costs and increase supply and that’s the end of the planet in a couple generations.
Question. Trees absorb CO2 and give off oxygen. If this organism uses CO2 then at some point will there not be a lack of CO2 and thus trees will start dying which in turn causes a lack of oxygen? Then won’t we die?
Energy for nothing… hmmmm, there seems to be a law against this somewhere.
I suspect that a second massive source of energy is needed… that solar converter thing I suspect.
Photosynthesis is about 5% efficient at converting CO2 to carbohydrate, so improvements are definitely possible.
While E. coli is a relatively easily cultured bacteria. I would think there were better organisms suited for a genetic alteration. E coli is usually limited to the intestine of warm blooded animals. There are other coliform bacteria which are hardier in survivability and reproduction. Perhaps the media may have made a slight error in reporting.
Greg Allan==Bigotry??? Ha, ha. Yes, bigotry. Nice way to channel and ignore anything said to you that you disagree with. If you were a PUKE, you would have said it was a demonstration of HATE. Just more mind control from the various overlords at play, if you will allow just a spoonful more of hate and bigotry to come your way. NEVER something to consider, even with a glint of humor.
Energy for Nothing
That is a recurring theme above. No. THE SUN provides all the energy and each conversion stage has a % of efficiency. When that conversion stage requires additional energy, as in using machines to filter the oil, that is very uniefficient. When the same end result is achieved by the biology of the modified algae, then the sun has provided that energy as well.
I googled for actual product being delivered by Algenol and only found announcements of new partnerships and new demonstration plants. They “should have” actually delivered product in 2009-10?
I salute my scientific betters and thank them for persevering against the darkness of ignorance bringing us the ability to light the night. Yes, I am bigoted against hate and ignorance.