Sunday, February 27, 2011

Daydream believers

This:
A Massachusetts biotechnology company says it can produce the fuel that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow. Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically-engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels.
What can it mean? No less than "energy independence," Joule's web site tells the world, even if the world's not quite convinced.

2 comments:

  1. One key point the Joule article stresses is the removing of biomass from the creation of hydrocarbons. Wouldn't that lower the profitability of farming?

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  2. If they can get bacteria to shit out diesel fuel by breathing on them, it would change the whole world. I'll believe it when I see it.

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