Reaction: I thought this was so unuasual and interesting to see bugs that are able to produce a substance similar to crude oil. The only big problem with this is how little it is able produce. Since the bugs are so small it can only produce one barrel a week and that is so small compared to our weekly consumption. I believe if they are able to find a way to get more of this excretion out of the bugs it is a great source of energy. A big plus on the bug resource is that it is renewable and geneticaly alternated so we will never have to run out as long as we can keep producing the bugs. Along with the renewable portion the polution is better also because it is carbon negative.
Questions:
1. Who is one of the main scientists working on this resource?
2. What has been done to the bugs so that they are able to be used a alternate resource for energy?
3. What substance does the bugs excrete?
4. How many square miles would have to be built for this resource to work?
5. Do you think this would be a good source of eergy if able to produce more?
Brianna Branco
Greg Pal a former software executive has been finding a way to make tiny bugs into petroleom.The bugs are geneticly alternated and are made to feed of agriculture waste. When doing so the excrete crude oil. Theoreticaly this excretion could be pured into a vehicle and be able to run. Pal believes it will take a few months
before this renewable petroleum will be suitable for cars. The labratory
and testings are being funded by $20 million of start-up capital from investors including Vinod Khosla, the Indian-American entrepreneur. T
he company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.The bugs are bein
g caled LS9's. The bugs are single-cell organisms, each a fraction of a billionth the size of an ant. Because crude oil is only a few molecular stages removed from the fatty acids normally excreted by yeast or E. coli during fermentation, it does not take much testing to get the desired result. Fermentation is the process of deriving energy from the oxidation of organic compounds, such as carbohydrates. For this process to take place there must be raw material or feedstock so it can be brocken down into sugars. When the byproduct is burnt it produces electricity to run the plants. Using genetically modified bugs for fermentation is very close to using natural bacteria to produce ethanol. Although the bugs excrete a substance that is pump ready, the machine that is used to ferment the bugs can only produce one barrel a week of the petroleum. To be able to produce Americas weekly consumption of 143 million barrels, a facility of 205 square miles roughly the size of Chicago would have to be built.
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