Fourth-generation fuel

[Bitchkoma]

Biofuels it seems are the third generation fuels. There is a new development in the horizon.

Famed geneticist creating life form that turns CO2 to fuel (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iYXm1UNEI-ViI-p5S6TAaogyDv8Q)MONTEREY, California (AFP) — A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.

Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California.

[..]

"We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with CO2 as the fuel stock."

Simple organisms can be genetically re-engineered to produce vaccines or octane-based fuels as waste, according to Venter.

Awesome!

[Yo Mama]

I hope he's right. That would be really awesome.

I'm waiting for them to gengineer microbes that will eat long chain polymers like plastic.

[Bitchkoma]

That doesn't seem as useful as harvesting the plastic to turn it back into oil.

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil (http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12141)

[mojo]

WOW.

Silly me for relating these technology's back to SF writers but i
have read something similar in a Stephen Baxter novel.

He takes it much further though.

I also remembering reading about microbes that live next to
volcanic vents in the ocean that create energy from the heat and
minerals.

[Yo Mama]

I'm currently reading a book called The World Without Us and the discussion of plastics in the ocean food chain are chilling. We seriously NEED microbes that will eat plastic, or all the plankton/krill/jellyfish/etc. are going to die off.

[mojo]

I'm currently reading a book called The World Without Us and the discussion of plastics in the ocean food chain are chilling. We seriously NEED microbes that will eat plastic, or all the plankton/krill/jellyfish/etc. are going to die off.

we could let the Box jellyfish die off, their nasty bastatrds.

just save the others.

[Bitchkoma]

We seriously NEED microbes that will eat plastic, or all the plankton/krill/jellyfish/etc. are going to die off.

That's a nice thought, but it really isn't practical. For it to work it would have to be released into the environment. Okay, no problem there. But what happens when those microbes spread to points that are not it's intended target? For example if it got into the cities where plastic is a vital component of our everyday life?

It can be a greater danger than it is worth it.

[Yo Mama]

If it's possible to engineer a microbe that will eat plastics, then it's possible to write into its DNA fail safes. Limited life span, eats only one type of plastics (such as PCBs), etc.

The book is seriously scary -- they talk about the plastics being ground down into smaller and smaller particles that never biodegrade.

As an aside, I also discovered that a rubber tire is one big molecule! Cool, huh?

[Bitchkoma]

Failsafes never work with life. Life always finds a way. Haven't the lessons learnt from Monsanto's experiment at creating a crop with built in insecticides taught us anything? The pests adapt.

Are Biotech Crops Failing? Bollworm Evolves Resistance to Bt Cotton (http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/biotech-crop-resistance-47020803)

The microbes will, too. And they have a life-cycle that is much faster (and therefore will evolve quicker) than bollworms.

[Iori Komei]

I think the real question is will this new fuel be as polluting as the current fuels we use, that is both oil and biofuel, which regardless of what the people who make it say is just as polluting and really even worse for the environment than oil.

I honestly want to see a transition to hybrids than to an oil/electric hybrid with 40/60 energy use and eventually a move to full electric and possibly Hydrogen electric hybrids.