17
Scientists create mutant bugs that produce crude oil
Posted in Blogs, News By: d_murphy81Is the price of fuel starting to get to you? Well experts from the company LS9, Inc. claim that they’ve discovered a cure for our fuel-dependency woes that only requires an army of genetically modified insects (read: industrial microbes)… that eat wheat straw and excrete crude oil (read: convert renewable feedstocks to a portfolio of “drop in compatible” hydrocarbon-based fuels and chemicals). You read that right: scientists have created bugs which are able to snack on woodchips or sugar cane and produce waste in the form of easily malleable oil.
Not only are the buggers capable of creating a byproduct which can quickly be refined into fuel for vehicles, but scientists say the process is carbon-negative — it outputs less carbon than is required to produce it. Director of the project — dubbed LS9 — Greg Pal says that barrel prices could run as low as $50, and that the company plans to have a commercial facility producing the crude in 2011. And as for the potential threat of a world-destroying attack from the mutant bugs? Says Pal, “We’re putting these bacteria in a very isolated container: their entire universe is in that tank. When we’re done with them, they’re destroyed.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Search
Donations
Navigation
Categories
