This seems notable...
Quoteparaphased...
The company, Joule Unlimited, was granted a patent in Sept. for their first in a series of microscopic organisms -- genetically altered versions of the E. coli bacteria -- that use sunlight and water in a process similar to photosynthesis to convert captured CO2 into usable crude oil.
They called it "Liquid Fuel From The Sun," which uses their "proprietary organism" to devour waste and defecate custom hydrocarbons.
It was apparently so promising that John Podesta -- the current president of the Center for American Progress who served as President Bill Clinton's former chief of staff and helped oversee President Obama's transition into power -- has joined Joule's board of directors.
"I have seen and heard many proposals by renewable energy companies, and can unequivocally say that Joule has a technology and a system unlike any other, with industrial viability and a clear path to market within the next several years," Podesta said
"Unlike biofuel processes that require costly intermediates such as sugar, algal or agricultural biomass, Joule is the first to achieve and patent a direct, single-step, continuous process for the production of hydrocarbon fuels requiring no raw material feedstocks – setting the stage for fossil fuel replacement at unprecedented efficiencies and costs as low as $30 per barrel equivalent," the company said in a media advisory.
Their first modified E. coli bacteria, which produced diesel fuel, allegedly outputs more energy than it takes in. This would ultimately lead to "unlimited supplies of ethanol and hydrocarbons without the high production costs or environmental consequences," according to Bill Sims, Joule's president and CEO.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/biotech-firm-promising-liquid-fuels-solar-energy-lands-podesta-board-directors/
wow - that does look interesting
.... genetically engineered e-coli bacteria though :-\ ?
Perhaps the food poisoning would be more tolerable if you ended up with enough 'biological diesel' to run the car for a week :)
It's just rare to hear things like a clear path to market and $30/ barrel.
I was excited until I read:
"...allegedly outputs more energy than it takes in."
Which set off the BS Detector.
They probably don't count the energy of the sun?
Anyway, the sooner we have these fuels, the better.
Yeah me too, initially but then I realized it was just bad writing. That was just a screwy way to say what you Just said.
I thought the US military was mucking about with fuel from algae? Did that pan out?
Yeah I think so. That has been some time in coming but I'm hearing more and more about it.
There was a biochemist from the US about a year ago, claiming he would find a bacteria that could turn CO2 into fuel. I wonder if it is the same chap.
I will never remember the name ...Chris someone...??? anyway, he was very flamboyant and over confident I felt.
If it is him, I take back the "over confident" bit!
The idea of plugging it into the back end of a power station is fantastic.
We could have macro versions on cars...
One of the key bit I think I remember was that the Bacteria was simple, and was replaced regularly to stop mutation, as it would be less efficient.
Got him: Craig Venter
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/06/07/a-bug-to-save-the-planet.html
Recently he claims to have created synthetic life, as a step to replacing Petrol.
So different. I think these Guys are streets ahead
I remember seeing a demo of something similar a couple of decades back on "tomorrows world". Bacteria + sunlight used to turn piss&shit in to a fuel substance that looked like green dust. I'm pretty sure that it was described as being really viable at the time, yet seemed to disappear without any further mention.
>seemed to disappear without any further mention.
That is just it, we hear about stuff all the time and then it just fizzles and you never hear of it again.
1. Some sort of coating on car radiators that would clean the air as we drive.
2. Fuel cells.
3. Solar houses
4. Glow in the dark prophylactics (okay we got those)
5. Fuel from trash
6. Fuel from algae
7. Hydrofoils and hovercraft
8. Solar waste water purification
Quote from: Brad on January 19, 2011, 08:06:57 PM
>seemed to disappear without any further mention.
8. Solar waste water purification
Think this one is a go-er.... http://www.solarwaterenergy.net/
Now where are these flashing johnnies?
Fuel Sells. A friend of mine still working on those at Rolls Royce.
They are a goer... just not quite yet :)
7. Hydrofoils & Hovercraft
Got those too. Although I think that the hydrofoils got replaced more by hybrid catarmarans. I do remember putting a small, slow sailing boat in front of one as a teenager though. They're pretty fast those things.
Hovercraft are still reasonably common though. There are certainly regular passenger routes with small hovercraft and they are also used by rescue services and the military. The big, car carrying ones are probably a thing of the past though.
>common
Okay fair enough Rooftop. I was thinking more consumer oriented, but you are right the US Marines make extensive use of hovercraft. I did see the guys on Top Gear horsing around on small personal hovercraft a few seasons ago, that looked fun. Still nobody hops in one and commutes to work every morning.
solar houses and fuel from trash are starting to get there
- our solar manages to power the house in the summer (we only paid for 20 units a month over the summer, and we export more than that, just we don't have storage capacity so we can't get entirely self sufficient as we need to run fridges etc overnight)
- there are waste incinerator power stations now, although not many in the uk. Jury's still out on how good an idea it is though I think.
The main area where seemingly good ideas seem to quietly dissapear seems to be in areas where it could be applied to vehicles. Or is that just a good conspracy theory?
The neighboring county is building a giant ethanol-from-trash facility. It has been done on small scale before but this is supposed to be the first time it has been done on a very large industrial scale, and nobody really knows if it will work. Actually I hope it does work, because we have no end of trash, and it makes more sense than using corn (maize).
>solar houses
Slowly seeing more green buildings here and more passive solar features being incorporated. On a house level, not realy seeing the 1980's solar homes being built anymore.
>hovercraft
There's a personal hovercraft around the neighborhood that I once toyed with buying. Like their close kin swamp boats, the noise level is mind-numbingly bad. I've heard that the fuel consumption is even more horrific than the noise.
>nobody hops in one and commutes to work every morning
When I was 14, I commuted to work occasionally in (what is now called) a J Class hydroplane in the summer. Fuel economy wasn't exactly up to 'green' standards, but probably better than a hovercraft.
The first hydrofoil I ever saw was on Jonny Quest. This was cutting edge cool back in the early 60's:
There used to be hydrofoil ferry between UK and France that I always wanted to take just to say I have ridden on one. It's probably gone now.
>hovercraft
I rode this one at Montreal in 67. I think it lost control and hit the bridge some time later.
http://www.photovalet.com/335142
<added>
hovercraft and hydrofoil
And subject line relevant to this thread: Remember when we used to dream?
http://www.taylornoakes.com/?p=117
A friend of mine (PhD in biology, MBA, and VP of business dev for a biotech, so a serious guy) launched a startup last year after asking a simple question - "How much carbon is there in the atmosphere?" He said he thinks that schemes to produce fuel from bacteria are still too far away to be commercially viable. What's more promising is engineering microorganisms to produce specific petrochemicals (think fertilizers, polymers, things like that) which have a higher value than $60/barrel. He think companies need to get off the ground replacing the high-cost uses of petrochemicals first, and then optimize the process to get it price competitive with fuel, which will be the last frontier. Of course, nobody has done either, so it may be the technical challenges of coming up with something that just sort of burns may be a lot easier than coming up with something that makes a durable, recyclable or compostable beverage bottle.
Quote"...allegedly outputs more energy than it takes in."
Which set off the BS Detector.
They probably don't count the energy of the sun?
I think they're comparing to many other biofuels (ethanol) and even photovoltaic solar, which are commonly alleged to require more petroleum and coal to produce than they offset (though both have supposedly surpassed breakeven in the last 10-15 years, it's still debated in some quarters). Like dogboy says, I think it's bad writing where "energy" = "fossil fuels".
QuoteI thought the US military was mucking about with fuel from algae?
There are private companies claiming to make this profitable and workable commercially. The big issue, as I understand it, is scale. They need lots of salt water, sun, and clean tubes to grow the stuff in. Currently using giant plastic bag tubes they get good initial yield, but as the algae grows, the sun doesn't penetrate well past the first layer, and there's a performance dropoff (according to my vague memory of a couple articles I've read).
Quote2. Fuel cells.
I have to say, all the talk of fuel cells as clean energy just drives me insane. Fuel cells, are storage devices, not energy sources. This whole "hydrogen economy" buzz is utter nonsense unless we find energy sources to make that hyrdogen. So yeah, great. Let's develop storage technologies for energy that are not as nasty as current battery tech, but first let's figure out how to produce the energy we're going to store. Otherwise, it make more sense to put the fossil fuels straight in your car (except in terms of local problems with smog, of course).
QuoteRemember when we used to dream?
One of the books that I'm always trying to get people to read is
The Clock of the Long Now by Stewart Brand (get it used on Amazon for $2). He formed the Long Now Foundation with Danny Hillis (one of the inventors of the Cray supercomputer) because Hillis noticed something in the early 1990s (as the Y2K mania heated up). He said "I remember when I was a kid in the 1950s and we would think about the future and talk about the year 2000. Now it's forty years later and when we talk about the future, we still talk about the year 2000.
That means that for every year I've been alive, I've lost one year of future."
Adding one:
9: Zeppelins, dirigibles, super blimps etc. - been hearing about the big comeback for 20 years and that has not really progressed beyond tourist rides and advertising. US Navy had one or two for radar (useful against small boat drug smugglers) but I don't know if those are still operational.
>Zeppelins, dirigibles, super blimps etc
You just don't know where to look, Brad.
On the airship front try a search on LEMV . US Military are meant to start using them this year and all sort of other nutty plans for them going around. I'm loving the idea of giant freight carrying ones. Would be an awesome sight!
This is a local company.
Company celebrates production of 100th aerostat
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/08/company-celebrates-production-100th-aerostat
They've built a few piloted blimps, too. I was once allowed to see the double-decker gondola of a military prototype, but I don't know for sure that it was ever placed into service.
More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12110386
Article:
http://www.airshipzprize.org/?p=304
I would love to see the one in the Trans Atlantic passenger trade, like they describe.
They still run a hovercraft to the Isle of Wight. I spent some time this new year watching them from Portsmouth.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1808044091219483323#
I wanted a ride, but somehow I think the real joy was watching them
I think when someone can invent a battery that actually can store energy effectively, then that will be a huge breakthrough. Currently, wind energy is great, biut there isn't a way to "store the windy days" for the "calm days".
And, I hope this patent takes off and doesn't get purchased by the oil companies. Oil companies are notorious for taking really amazing inventions that use energy from non-oil sources and burying them.
I'd really like the US to be able to give the finger to the Middle East Oil conglomerate.
QuoteCurrently, wind energy is great, biut there isn't a way to "store the windy days" for the "calm days".
Sure there is - all you need is a hill, a valley, a pump, a turbine and some water.... Maybe not the most efficient, but I've heard of this being done for nuke plants to store up energy for peak times.
http://www.wales-underground.org.uk/electric/index.shtml
When there is more leccy than is needed, the turbines run in reverse and move water back to the reservoir.
This will detail it pretty well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity
BTW, I think electric cars are mostly a boondoggle at the moment (in most of the US, they would be recharged with coal). But they are one of the greatest potential load balancing resources imaginable. Think that every parking lot - municipal garages, large corps, shopping malls - have smart meters and so do all houses. I tell my car to never drain itself below a 50-mile range. Then whereever I go, I plug into the smart meter and, of course, my car has a unique IPv6 ip number, and when the price is below a certain level, I buy (charge) and above a certain price, I sell. So when my car is sitting out in the middle of the day and the solar farm is cranking, I grab a cheap recharge... until the temps climb and the air conditioning kicks in and then I sell.
But there's a lot to solve before this sort of thing becomes a reality - cheap renewable generation, smart and flexible transmission, the ability of end users to either buy or sell and do so on the move with their cars (and the inherent privacy issue to be solved there).
A local lake is used for cooling 3 nuclear reactors. The dam on the upper end is hydro-electric.
Its kind of neat to be on the water and the level change over a couple of hours.
The water coming off the bottom of the upper lake is rather cool in the upper 50s which is nice on a hot day. Also, a river bubbles up sort of out of nowhere, a huge jetski whirlpool, when they use the hydro.
On the other end, where the reactors are, the water is considerably warmer, nice for swimming and skiing on the cooler days. (cue green fish/glowing appendage jokes)