Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Making Biofuel from E.Coli and Sugar Cane

A company in San Francisco, LS9, is making biofuel by mixing genetically modified E. Coli, sugarcane and water. The E. Coli metabolize sugars and excrete fatty acids that have the same hydrocarbon configuration as petroleum.

The biofuel floats to the top and may be skimmed off and put directly in your car. A barrel of E. Coli fuel would be approximately $50, instead of the $200 price tag for conventional fuel.

Biofuel does not need all the infrastructure needed by ethanol and natural gas, so it is a much cheaper solution.

The company plans on using other forms of biowaste to plant is reduce costs. The first large scale plant is scheduled to be up and running by 2011.

From the LS9.com website:
LS9 DesignerBiofuels™ products are a family of fuels produced by specially-engineered microbes created via industrial synthetic biology. Starting from raw, natural sources of sugar such as sugar cane and cellulosic biomass, these renewable fuels will fundamentally change the biofuels landscape and set the stage for widespread product adoption and petroleum displacement. LS9 hydrocarbon biofuels have higher energetic content than ethanol or butanol and have fuel properties that are essentially indistinguishable from those of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
I love that term petroleum displacement in the above paragraph. We have the technology and the intelligence to make the USA energy independent. Here is hoping that we do.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the 2nd time I read stuff about e.coli as a good source of energy--as in fuel. The 1st time, some high school students had demonstrated that e.coli can produce electricity to put on a light bulb. The world is indeed in good hands when innovators are around. :)

Anonymous said...

You say it can go into your car. I know most biofuels seem inadequate for gasoline engines, but this stuff you found is comproble to jet fuel? That's freakin awesome! E.coli is so easily engineerable(sp?) it really seems sometimes that this microscopic "bug" will change the world. Sweet post!

Anonymous said...

Sounds promising. Hope this turns out better than ethanol.

Anonymous said...

This sounds very promising, the only problem is that all these promising alternative fuels get bought up by the greedy petrol companies and no one hears from them again.

Anonymous said...

i think it's time to use biofuel and other gas alternatives to be used, at this time of crisis fuel saving tips must be implemented and that includes using biofuels as an alternative.