Another one to file under “I Want To Believe.” Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have created a microbe that secretes cellulose that could be harvested to make biofuel. It sounds good and will be great if it works on a large scale.
Via AMCGLTD
April 25th, 2008 - 2:34 pm
Oh, I hope that works.
I’ve also heard stuff about a microbe (an alga, I think) that produces hydrogen as a by-product of decomposition – basically you can feed the stuff compost and get hydrogen back. I hope that works, too, because then we’d be able to have the choice of H-cell cars as well.
I’m really not keen on corn/sugarcane/soy being used as a feedstock for fuel, and I think we’re beginning to see some of the unintended consequences of that in food prices.
April 25th, 2008 - 3:21 pm
I have never thought making fuel out of corn was a good idea. When I first heard of bio-fuels they were talking about making bio-diesel out of agricultural waste. There was someone who was supposed to be starting a company that would make it out of waste from poultry processing plants but except for one article I never heard any more about that. And then everyone started getting excited about making ethanol from corn.
I think it’s all about who has the most best ad campaign. The corn people had enough money to run some ads on TV and get a lot of people behind that. Some of the people with better ideas haven’t been as good at getting their message out and getting people on board.