Joule Creates Renewable Fossil Fuels At Unlimited Quantity.

Greg0986

Greg0986

Greg0986

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Not sure if this has been posted before but what the heck :p

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Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...rld-of-fossil-fuels-on-demand/article1871149/

In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech 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.”
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A big update on this project, Joule just secured a few sites for production!

http://www.jouleunlimited.com/news/...rst-multiple-sites-host-solar-fuel-production

Cambridge, Mass. – May 5, 2011 – Marking another milestone in its advance towards commercialization, Joule Unlimited, Inc. today announced the signing of a lease agreement providing access to 1,200 acres in Lea County, New Mexico, with the potential to scale the project up to 5,000 acres for production of renewable diesel and ethanol directly from sunlight and waste CO2. The agreement with Lea County is the first to be completed as part of Joule's production facility siting program.
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IF (and its a big if) this organism does what they believe it does, there is still a very long way to go. Commercialising technology like this could easily take decades and is a very risky business.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to hear in a year or 2 that the company has shut down and the grant\investor capital has all mysteriously gone.
 
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I'll believe it when I see it. Going by other similar stories I see on the net makes me think this will be the last I hear about it.
 
World will be screwed if it becomes reality cause we'll then go even more mad on using fosil fuels and speed up globall warming.
 
They should just genetically engineer us to poop out oil.
And work out how much we would use over our lifetime, not just direct use, but indirect such as the oil needed for the tractor to plow the field, for the lorries to transport the goods etc. And make sure we atleast poop out that amount atleast in our lifetime.
Problem solved.
 
Combat squirrel said:
Is this chemically possible ? any chemists in here want to work out the reaction?
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Hydrocarbons are made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The idea would be that the bacterium would "eat" the CARBON diOXIDE and somehow combine that with the diHYDROGEN monOXIDE around it to form hydrocarbons. However, to create hydrocarbons it would have to be imparting energy to the molecules in order to form them, and where is it going to get that energy from? And if it has to take in energy from somewhere in order to impart that into the hydrocarbons, then unless we are hooked on forming hydrocarbons, then there would be more efficient ways using the bacterium's energy source.

It isn't even a matter of chemistry - physics can tell you that this isn't likely to be viable.
 
bacteria that make diesel have been around for a while.

growing them efficiently is a pain though.
 
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