Fueling Your Car With Microbes?

[Kirk Freeman]

Researchers at UCLA have purportedly found a way to convert microbes to liquid fuel that would power your vehicle if this is successfully scaled up.

Interesting times:

Modified microbes turn carbon dioxide to liquid fuel

 

[eldirector]

That's pretty effing slick. Isobutanol can also be run in most gas engines with little to no modifications at all. Unlike ethanol, the energy output is nearly that of gasoline.

Hard to see a downside to this.

 

[hoosierdoc]

While it's a proof of concept, I'm guessing it's still easier to drill oil, refine it, and pour it into your gas tank.

Same with algae being used to make fossil fules to then extract and use in your car. Just get oil! surely we can all agree that our long-term solution to powering vehicles is NOT going to be microbes...

We need fossil fuels for air travel and military, and electric vehicles for the rest of us powered by a nuc(u)lear grid

 

[indykid]

I can see the Sci-Fi movies now, Attack of the Fuel Making Microbes!

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Don't give the anti-Science lobby any ideas.

Don't tell them that microbes are in vaccines; they'll be writing angry letters to UCLA and Alex Jones.

 

[ductileiron98]

ford

I heard about this kind of thing around five years ago from employees at ford. They were testing this kind of fuel/microbe at the diesel think tank test faucility. I think it is interesting. The Government will make us buy license's for our pet microbes !

 

[kludge]

Thermodynamics in a nutshell.

1. You can't win.
2. You can't break even.
3. You can't quit.

Liao and his team genetically engineered a lithoautotrophic microorganism known as Ralstonia eutropha H16 to produce isobutanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol in an electro-bioreactor using carbon dioxide as the sole carbon source and electricity as the sole energy input.

emphasis added

I wonder where we're going to get the electricity to drive this? And how much energy is lost in the process?

 

[eldirector]

I think the article mentioned solar.

at the "three laws of thermodynamics". So true....

I am wondering what the "chemical intermediate" is. The Hydrogen has to come from somewhere. The left-over Oxygen needs to go somewhere as well. Doubt we are lucky enough to get O2 as a byproduct.

edit: Formic Acid... Hmmm....

 

[jbombelli]

Thermodynamics in a nutshell.

1. You can't win.
2. You can't break even.
3. You can't quit.

emphasis added

I wonder where we're going to get the electricity to drive this? And how much energy is lost in the process?

I envision thousands of square miles of green energy solar panels sweeping across the deserts. Transmission cables and jobs going everywhere.

I need a loan.

 

[mrjarrell]

Drug companies already produce thousands of gallons of drugs all the time using bacteria. This is just a step in the right direction. There's no such thing as the right fuel. Oil is going to eventually go the way of the dinosaurs. No pun intended. We already have multiple fuels on the market, there's room for plenty more. Personally, my bet's on hydrogen. Super clean, efficient and abundant.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

my bet's on hydrogen. Super clean, efficient and abundant

Me too, but not not figuratively but in a way that reduces my AGI and is tax-deferred.