In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. bio-tech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent for “a proprietary organism” – a genetically adapted E. coli bacterium – that feeds solely on carbon dioxide and excretes liquid hydrocarbons: diesel fuel, jet fuel and gasoline. This breakthrough technology, the company says, will deliver renewable supplies of liquid fossil fuel almost anywhere on Earth, in essentially unlimited quantity and at an energy-cost equivalent of $30 (U.S.) a barrel of crude oil. It will deliver, the company says, “fossil fuels on demand.”
We’re not talking “bio-fuels” – not, at any rate, in the usual sense of the word. The Joule technology requires no “feedstock,” no corn, no wood, no garbage, no algae. Aside from hungry, gene-altered micro-organisms, it requires only carbon dioxide and sunshine to manufacture crude. And water: whether fresh, brackish or salt. With these “inputs,” it mimics photosynthesis, the process by which green leaves use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds. Indeed, the company describes its manufacture of fossil fuels as “artificial photosynthesis.”
If this is on the level, it would be fantastic.
Found by Cinàedh.
An update from the Boston Business Journal found by jeffreysdailey.
#33 Skeptic
Here’s a rough try to do the calc. They claim 15,000 gal of diesel fuel/acre per year. The US uses about 18.8 millom barrels of oil a day. There are 42 gallons in a barrel and 365 days in a year.
I make the assumption that a barrel of oil is equivalent to a barrel of diesel fuel which is probably inaccurate but it should give us a ballpark number.
When I crunch those numbers together I get 19.2 million acres to replace all of the USA’s oil needs.
The land would have to have adequate sun exposure so weather and seasonality will be factors in siting. Land use costs and impacts will be a major factor in whether this makes economic sense. Land use costs will also make a difference on whether the production would be distributed in populated areas or rural areas. Perhaps polar locations with long summer days. Or perhaps tropical areas would have an advantage.
That’s assuming the bugs can be successfully nurtured on massive scale.
In many ways this appears to be a cleverly designed artifical pond algae. Grows like algae and engineered to produce specific hydrocarbons as poop.
Sounds too good to be true to me …
1. I foresee this or better process ((eg a sunlight free process so that hydrocarbon production can take place in huge vats)) being used for those end uses that require “oil” such as jet aircraft/plastics.
2. The math is easy to do==just multiple a few numbers together. Silly.
3. Development of electrical and hydrogen fuels to continue for their applications as well.
4. The key to EVERY issue raised here is cost of production: $30 a barrel==solves every problem.
5. And its carbon neutral or even negative if the plastic is made into long lived building products==and the process could be run to do just that.
Ha, ha. Even the dismally stoopid can’t stop the future.
My shades: 0-0
#40 It would probably keep you on the can 24/7 like dhiorrea. Basically, to go do anything else, you would need a cork…
If this is real, it would be blocked by the oil companies and the Arabs.
Both these groups would be strongly/violently against anything that supplanted their supremacy. They are the people that lie to us pretending that climate change is not true. They are just protecting their money.
Expect it to be bought up and shut down like so many other technical advances over the last 100+ years.
#44–Holdfast==extremely clever our corporate masters: keeping us all tied to oil when there is no oil?
Nice hat trick.
Pictures have an effect on the savage beast:
Just google images (algae biofuel):
http://google.com/images?q=algae+biofuel&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=836&bih=510
VASTLY more efficient than agricultural conversions. THAT and similar wasteful subsidies will be the “real” impediment to production======but not at $30 a barrel. Ha. ha. And better bugs to come.
I read 5 years ago this already then off the shelf process was basically waiting for the market price of oil to increase AND using the time to make better organisms. At the time, the high target inefficiency was the ENERGY it took to remove the hydrocarbons from the algae. If now the desired product is poop, then the sunlight will be providing that energy as well.
How long until SCIENCE will be accepted as our god? Still need a person, and not a process? ((The deevil of sinister corporations is already in place as the balance!!))
Stoopid Hoomans.
#45 Unless there is already microbes underground that is making new oil, there will be a decreasing quantity left.
Economics say that the less there is of something, the more it costs. In fact, scarcity increases profits much more than plentiful supplies.
A new source of oil – even if they owned it – would give them less money. Their interest seems to be maximum immediate profit. Long term considerations do not count.
From the pretty pictures:
http://cnet.com.au/algae-farm-in-mexico-to-produce-ethanol-in-2009-339289867.htm
and the company is still in business and hiring:
http://www.algenolbiofuels.com/jobs.htm
I am reminded of what is “always” the case: breaking news today is a rehash of what already occurred 5 years ago, which was demonstrated in a laboratory 20 years ago, which was discussed theoretically 50 years ago.
Progress: slow and constant==kinda like a steamroller over the idiocy expressed by all too many above. And your idiot vote counts the same as mine??????
Yea Veerily.
Holdfast==really? You can read the entire thread, maybe a link here or there, google on your own and yet you choose to play with your own poop? The algae laugh at you.
Stoopid Human.
#39 Google them yourself.
Barney Frank: Fishing decisions make it hard to cooperate with Obama
The following is the text of a op-ed column submitted by U.S. Rep Barney Frank
Last week, the Obama administration violated assurances that it was prepared to work constructively with the fishing industry
http://topix.com/forum/city/washington-dc/TD7AC8EM2S8U9290R
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Two-Thirds of Federal Oil and Gas Drilling Permits Sat Idle in 2010
Oil and gas companies drilled fewer new wells on public lands in 2010 than in any other year over the past decade
http://nytimes.com/gwire/2011/01/13/13greenwire-two-thirds-of-federal-oil-and-gas-drilling-per-13123.html
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The jobs O hates
New regs = more pink slips
By BEN LIEBERMAN
Last Updated: 5:00 AM, December 6, 2010
Posted: 10:44 PM, December 5, 2010
Comments: 11
More Print
For all his talk of job creation, Presi dent Obama has targeted many occupations for extinction. Using un elected bureaucrats to implement a host of job-killing measures, his administration is generating piles of pink slips:
Read more: http://nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_jobs_hates_oXIsAxVOBCZmFNzSlF6uJJ#ixzz1BRLgRp2v
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Google “Obama job killing regulations” and the REAL Obama will be revealed. He is taking this country down, the Russians know it, China knows it, everyone but the left loons know it…perhaps they agree with it.
They grow up immersed in how bad this country is…every day…they are hypnotized…
With B. Obama, whatever he promises to do, look for him to do the opposite… more than not, you will be right.
President Barack Obama Tuesday ordered a government-wide review of regulations with the goal of eliminating those that hurt job creation and make the U.S. economy less competitive.
http://cnbc.com/id/41131176
After two years he does this now? Why? Because for the last two years he has been doing the opposite, and its becoming too well known…Google it…everyone is talking about this, except at DU.
Its more misdirection. Obama has been doing the opposite his shadow regulatory agencies, and too many people are talking about…they are starting to see a pattern…a Saul Alinsky collapse the system pattern…
Its open to debate why Obama would aid and abet the destruction of the country…perhaps he believe out of the ashes, a wonderful Soros backed regime will spring forth…but fact remains, he is destroying America…the Russians know it, the Chinese know it, and THEY are extremely happy.
While some think Obama will one day join the President of Tunisia in Saudi Arabia…to me, that is inconsistent with Saul Alinsky, Rev. Wright, Dreams of My Father anti colonialism maxism…
Rather, its more likely he will appear with those Russian Spies in Moscow…smiling…bowing to Putin.
While some think Obama will one day join the President of Tunisia in Saudi Arabia…to me, that is inconsistent with Saul Alinsky, Rev. Wright, Dreams of My Father anti colonialism maxism…
Rather, its more likely he will appear with those Russian Spies in Moscow…smiling…bowing to Putin.
I regret that last…I don’t know what explains his purposeful destruction of our economy, but I suspect he is an anticolonialist like his Father…therefore Britain, USA, France…etc…are in the crosshairs.
But this is in a context where he believes he is creating a better world…of social and laconic equality…the proverbial workers paradise.
He is too doctrinaire to allow history guide him, that such societies never succeed, they only impoverish and enslave the society that tries it.
But there are many conspiracy theories that compete for acceptance…I leave the matter open.
I only assert one thing, the empirical evidence proves he is purposely destroying our economy, covertly…that pattern is well established by the actions of his regulatory agencies.
Why he does it, what he hopes to gain from it, I leave to others to discover.
Frankly, I have I hard time believing this but, if true, does it solve the global warming looming crisis?
On the pro-side, of course is that it consumes CO2.
But what are the emissions like? Are there other toxins?
I’ve heard fairly credible-sounding people claim that the creation of oil didn’t take nearly as long as conventional wisdom says.
(I’m pretty sure they weren’t young-earth creationists)
A discovery like this might back up their claims.
#53 The fossil origin of oil doesn’t fit the latest evidence…the oldest crust isn’t in the oceans, its on land…yet oil is found in the oceans.
I once heard a theory earth was covered with organic carbon during its formation…but haven’t heard anything about that since.
There is no global warming that we can prevent…the sun causes that ebb and flow of ice.
CO2 is a blessing to plants, its like fertilizer.
As for your last, I’m sure the loons will argue there are toxins in court for decades, preventing the technology
Greg–any “refined” product has exactly what the producer wants in it. Maybe they leave bad things in because it is cheaper but thats consistent with the fact that its all refined and purposeful.
What do you guess there is more than one way oil gets made in nature and certainly in the lab? See that religious mode of thinking sinking your boat===as in only one god/only one way? Yes, its quite a straightjacket in ways you don’t even recognize, but SATAN observes it plainly.
Foolishness is $10/gal: stupid.
This sounds very exciting although I’d like to see more details. Sounds too good to produce such high energy densities from such simple components.
If the Saudi-Bush oil cartel hold an emergency meeting in the near future, then I will be very optimistic
So Dallas==you ran the numbers comparing the total amount of energy falling on a square meter of land and the resulting hydrocarbon produced is 10% of the input making it very high density indeed as the input is FREE from the Sun? Life Form bio engineered for the desired purpose not possible to do until about 5 years ago and this is “simple” in your mind?
Words. Rhe – tor – ic.
Amusing how something can “sound” good but actually mean nothing? Just a nudge.
Could you imagine what this would do the world’s commodity markets?
*Splat*
According to the article, 1 acre can produce 15,000 gallons of fuel per year.
The US uses 900,000,000 gallons of fuel a DAY, or 328.5 billion gallons a year
That means we need 21.9 million acres of land, or 35,000 square miles, about the size of the state of Maine.
To put that in perspective, if we covered only 60 square miles of land with solar thermal plants, we could power the entire US with solar energy.
Bottom line I would not get my hopes up with this “miracle” process until we know what the EROEI is.