| Curious About A New Super Fuel? By Susan Farmer Curious about the newest technology in fuels? Well here is a bit of fascinating information on one of the newest ways to create a new biodiesel fuel. This fuel uses a nasty human irritant and turns it into a surprising alli. What is it? Well, scientists in San Francisco, California have taken the nasty bug, E.Coli, and genetically engineered it to excrete biodiesel fuel! How? The scientists mix sugar cane with modified E. Coli in huge vats of water. The E.Coli metabolize the sugars and then excrete the fatty acids. Here is one of the cool things though. These fatty acids have the same hydrocarbon configuration as petroleum! And here is the other really cool part! This biodieisel fuel is easy to collect because it just rises to the top and it is skimmed off the top, just like cream is skimmed of the top of milk. And then it can go straight into your gas tank! How cool is that? Also the cost is reasonable, about $50 a barrel! And the scientists say they can further drop costs by feeding the bacteria woodchips and other biowaste. The plant, L59, that has created the new biofuel wants to have a large scale facility to be up and running by 2011. My suggestion is start writing to congress and don't let this technology be side lined in any way. Sometimes, these discoveries just up and disappear before they actually get put to use. Don't let that happen to this one. |