Oil poopin' buggers!

[bhsup]

No joke! Bacteria poop crude oil! Could this be the answer??

...

Inside LS9’s cluttered laboratory – funded by $20 million of start-up capital from investors including Vinod Khosla, the Indian-American entrepreneur who co-founded Sun Micro-systems – Mr Pal explains that LS9’s bugs are single-cell organisms, each a fraction of a billionth the size of an ant. They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli, but LS9 modifies them by custom-de-signing their DNA. “Five to seven years ago, that process would have taken months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says. “Now it can take weeks and cost maybe $20,000.”
Because crude oil (which can be refined into other products, such as petroleum or jet fuel) is only a few molecular stages removed from the fatty acids normally excreted by yeast or E. coli during fermentation, it does not take much fiddling to get the desired result.

...

Entire story here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

 

[OttoManD]

Amazing!!

Next on the list: an aerial bacteria that eats greenhouse gases and poops gold.

 

[LucyDuke]

So... where does the energy come from?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Simply amazing! I wonder if we can get it to cost less per barrel than it does now; the article gives numbers like $20,000, but it's unclear what exactly that means.

 

[Cutlass]

So... where does the energy come from?

The sun Processes like this can produce some oil, typically only efficient at high prices. But to scale up to replace a significant portion of our oil use isn't too likely.

 

[dutchfire]

So... where does the energy come from?

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

Waste

 

[potatokiosk]

So... where does the energy come from?

The article mentioned "agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw" so they'd be cheap to supply.

 

[Kozmos]

Well oil is basically dead animals and plant and ..... , so it excreting crude oil is not so surprising right?

Most interesting anyway. I propose it be named OILIX.

 

[Gooblah]

All bugs are insects.

No insects are single-celled organisms.

Thus, this 'LS9' is not a bug, for god's sake. It's probably a eukaryote, which would put it in Kingdom...Protista IIRC.

 

[bhsup]

All bugs are insects.

No insects are single-celled organisms.

Thus, this 'LS9' is not a bug, for god's sake. It's probably a eukaryote, which would put it in Kingdom...Protista IIRC.

LS9 is the name of the company. The "bug" is "They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli,".

It is quicker to just say "bug".

 

[Japanrocks12]

All bugs are insects.

No insects are single-celled organisms.

Thus, this 'LS9' is not a bug, for god's sake. It's probably a eukaryote, which would put it in Kingdom...Protista IIRC.

no, they're strains of E. Coli, meaning that they're Eubacteria

 

[OttoManD]

So.... I'm not too sure about the exact protocol, but this means we have to invade LS9, right?

 

[Gooblah]

Never mind, then.

to OttoManD.

And the new organism is definitely Kingdom Monera (or Eubacateria, now).

 

[Ecofarm]

And the new organism is definitely Kingdom Monera (or Eubacateria, now).

Do genes between the splice count?

How about Kingdom Frankensteina

 

[I'm Cleo!]

So.... I'm not too sure about the exact protocol, but this means we have to invade LS9, right?

No, no, no. We have to liberate LS9.

Cleo

 

[Ecofarm]

No, no, no. We have to liberate LS9.

LS9 is totalitarian?

 

[Elrohir]

Interesting article VRWC. This is exactly the kind of innovation that we need.

Simply amazing! I wonder if we can get it to cost less per barrel than it does now; the article gives numbers like $20,000, but it's unclear what exactly that means.

The article says with Brazilian sugar cane as the food source, it'd cost about $50 a barrel. Even if it's twice that, that's still a pretty good deal thesedays. (And if it's triple that, it'll be a good deal by the time it's commercially viable )

Sounds like the main problem would be turning this into a large enough industry that it can be used to fill a large portion of our needs. Sounds expensive, but doable. It's still early though....

 

[Ecofarm]

This could hurt peak oil politically.

 

[Shekwan]

But what if we need to make Jenkem?!

 

[Perfection]

Fossil fuels in the last century reached their extreme prices because of their inherent utility: they pack a great deal of potential energy into an extremely efficient package. If we can but sidestep the 100 million year production process, we can corner this market once again.

CEO Nwabudike Morgan
Strategy Session​