3 ms·

Please forgive the almost-off-topic question, but I've been curious for years and can never find a straight answer. Is there no microbe out there that will ferm

Please forgive the almost-off-topic question, but I've been curious for years and can never find a straight answer. Is there no microbe out there that will ferment sugar/starch into methanol? I once found a paper on methanol poisonings in the developing world which didn't seem deliberate, and the authors suggested there were some opportunistic yeast that might be the culprit. High energy chemistry to make methanol just seems to almost miss the point.

msandford 3y ago
There probably is one out there somewhere. But there are many that ferment to ethanol and those are looked after and can probably out compete the methanol in most situations. Honestly if you're just trying to store energy going to ethanol is fine too. It'll burn just fine provided you've dehydrated it enough.
megaman821 3y ago
It almost doesn't matter. These bio processes are only good for generating a small amount of the energy we need, but as you get to volume there is a need to add fertilizer in the mix. Fertilizer uses fossil fuels and energy to make, thereby negating any gains of the bio process over just using the fossil fuels and energy directly.
DFHippie 3y ago
You can't feed microbes the surplus energy from your wind or solar farm, though.
- ephbit 3y ago
  > Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is a significantly sustainable bio-electrochemical system for biological hydrogen production. MEC is also regarded as an environmentally friendly method for producing clean biohydrogen from a variety of waste organic matters and for its low greenhouse gas emissions. This technology involves the oxidation of organic matter at the anode and the reduction of proton at the cathode under the nominal external voltage supply. However, bio-hydrogen production efficiency and operating costs of MEC still need further optimization to implement in large-scale applications. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385894722060156 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13858...

msandford 3y ago

There probably is one out there somewhere. But there are many that ferment to ethanol and those are looked after and can probably out compete the methanol in most situations. Honestly if you're just trying to store energy going to ethanol is fine too. It'll burn just fine provided you've dehydrated it enough.

megaman821 3y ago

It almost doesn't matter. These bio processes are only good for generating a small amount of the energy we need, but as you get to volume there is a need to add fertilizer in the mix. Fertilizer uses fossil fuels and energy to make, thereby negating any gains of the bio process over just using the fossil fuels and energy directly.

DFHippie 3y ago

You can't feed microbes the surplus energy from your wind or solar farm, though.

ephbit 3y ago
> Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is a significantly sustainable bio-electrochemical system for biological hydrogen production. MEC is also regarded as an environmentally friendly method for producing clean biohydrogen from a variety of waste organic matters and for its low greenhouse gas emissions. This technology involves the oxidation of organic matter at the anode and the reduction of proton at the cathode under the nominal external voltage supply. However, bio-hydrogen production efficiency and operating costs of MEC still need further optimization to implement in large-scale applications. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385894722060156 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13858...