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Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol
- rw 18y agoShould be: "scientists fund bugs that eat waste..."
- maurycy 18y agoActually "entrepreneurs fund bugs that eat waste..."
- dfranke 18y agoDupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=217889 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=217889
- sc 18y agoMaybe URLs with empty query strings should be stripped of '?' before posted.
- snewe 18y agoThe fact that the company claims "if LS9 used Brazilian sugar cane as its feedstock, its fuel would probably cost about $50 a barrel. " it appears they are relying on long-term extremely high gas prices. Isn't sugar cane the most energy rich of the ethanol inputs? If so, then using agricultural waste (as they say they plan on doing), will likely cost a lot more than $50/barrel.
- IsaacSchlueter 18y agoEven if it currently would cost $1000/barrel, it's still worthwhile to pursue as an alternative to drilling. Greater efficiency can come in later iterations. Immediately, at any price, it's more carbon-responsible and less politically volatile. This is exciting stuff!
- mdasen 18y agoOil is already at >$130/barrel. $50/barrel would mean less than half the price. The only thing they're relying on is that, long-term, oil doesn't see a halving of its price.
- boredguy8 18y agohttp://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html is a wonderful resource.
- GrandMasterBirt 18y agoAlternative to drilling = no need to drill in wildlife preserves. [good] Alternative to drilling = main money-maker of middle east going to be eliminated (good for us, bad for people living there). [bad] Alternative to drilling = global warming problems going to worsen because oil-user companies (car companies etc...) will have less incentive to become more efficient. I just hope that this "carbon negative" statement they made is not a pr-ploy [ugly]
- jauco 18y agoThat thought hit me too, but actively growing new crops will take out at least as much carbon as the bugs produce (nihil ex nihilo fit). The problem with fossil fuels is that it takes lots of carbon that was safely tucked away and reintroduces it into the ecosystem.
- magus_pwnsen 18y agoThe problem is that drawing energy out of crops is very inefficient. Plants are very good at generating the complex organic molecules we need to ingest in order to survive, but pretty inefficient when we just want lots of energy. We need safer/cleaner nukes, in my opinion, and electric cars/planes + maglev trains for mid-distance transport. Nukes provide bridge energy during this probably permanent oil problem; better solar should be the ultimate destination.
- magus_pwnsen 18y agoHmf. My bugs have created seg-faults, memory leaks, etc., but never oil. I suck.