Renewable Petroleum

[Dr. Shane]

Scientists Find Microbes That Eat Garbage, Excrete Crude Oil

"Ten years ago I could never have imagined I'd be doing this," says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. "I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to — especially the ones coming out of business school — this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into."

He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs — very, very small bacteria — so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as wood chips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.

Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us.

Not that Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls "renewable petroleum." After that, he grins, "it's a brave new world."

Pal is a senior director of LS9, one of several companies in or near Silicon Valley that have spurned traditional high-tech activities such as software and networking and embarked instead on an extraordinary race to make $140-a-barrel oil from Saudi Arabia obsolete.

"All of us here — everyone in this company and in this industry — are aware of the urgency," Pal says.

[Text taken from link]

[Woody]

Quote:

bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us.

Disgusting. I have no intentions of driving a Lexus on 'bug excretion'.

[Bravus]

You go girl! Just keep on driving it on putrescent vegetation instead. ;-)

[Amelia]

[Dr. Shane]

Even if perfected, at the rate the world is consuming oil. that would be a lot of microbes eating a lot of garbage on a daily basis to keep up with demand.

[Neil D]

And we might have that spotless world that we have been wanting......as opposed to that dirty one that we currently have...

[Bravus]

The most black-humoured side of my personality took it in a different direction:

Quote:

"World daily oil consumption is something like 83 million barrels a day. And there are 7.33 barrels to the metric ton, so we need something like eleven and a half million tons of crude a day."

He was already pulling a crumpled envelope from his pocket, and grabbing the pen he'd been gnawing like the substitute cigarette it was.

"Look, it's not that complicated. World population about 6 billion, right? Now say average life expectancy is about 60 - more some places, much less others, but that'll do..."

After a quick calculation on the back of the envelope he says, "Right, so 60 years is 22,000 days, plus or minus. Now, you live for 22,000 days but only die on one day, so 1/22,000 of the world's population, on average, dies every day." More scratching on the envelope. "That means something like 273,000 bodies a day."

"Now say the average body weight is 60 kg - again, much more in some places, less in others. That's..." scratch, scribble, "close enough to sixteen and a half million tons a day."

"Now, they've invented these new bacteria that can produce crude oil from any old garbage you have lying around - landfills and such - but you have to assume it's not 100% efficient."

"Only what I think is, they've had them for ages, but it's only now, in the middle of this artificially created oil crisis when prices are high, that they feel like they can give us a peek at the truth."

"Light sweet crude is people!"

[Neil D]

The most black-humoured side of my personality took it in a different direction:

Holy Soylent Green, Batman!