Comments on: Diesel On Demand — E.Coli Bacteria Engineered To Produce Pure Diesel Fuel

By: serebyani

serebyani — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 23:35:00 +0000

This is old news , it’s been being done in the US using a prairie grass for a few years now, glad its finally getting some support and interest.

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:49:00 +0000

If we rapidly electrify most ground transport the price of oil will fall, so using oil and then capturing the released CO2 may turn out cheaper than using biofuels. And even if we never drill another oil well, currently existing wells will continue to produce some oil for over 100 years in some cases. Since we’re guaranteed a trickle of oil the most economic option will probably be to use it and then capture and sequester the CO2 released. And while some concern is justified, obtaining carbon credits by removing CO2 from the atmosphere and sequestering it is no more open to abuse than many other things modern civilisation depends upon for survival.

By: Otis11

Otis11 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:52:00 +0000

Ok, well, to be honest I’m not familiar with that technology, but I would think it would be a whole lot more efficient to use battery technology… and if batter technology isn’t acceptible for that particular application, it would likely make sense to alter that application to use methane.

But then again I don’t know the costs of producing glucose via LED lights.

And agreed, we’ll see which one plays out, but I would be strongly against the “release and capture later” approach as it is ripe for abuse. If you have a system that’s inherently carbon neutral, there’s no way to abuse it (From a carbon standpoint that is)

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:24:00 +0000

Well, we could produce glucose in a bioreactor using LED light powered by wind and solar and use that to produce the biodiesel. Producing biodiesel or glucose across an electricity gradient is also technically possible. But electrifying most transport and using oil or natural gas for what’s left and removing CO2 released from the atmosphere and sequestering it is also an option. We’ll have to see which option is cheaper.

By: Otis11

Otis11 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:52:00 +0000

While this is a great technology and I hope they can commercialize it soon and ramp up production, it has a fatal flaw that will likely keep it from being our final solution – It requires sugar as an input. That means it is competing with food crops… (and more than that, we have limited land suitable for crops, more crop land = more environmental impact)

Definitely great for areas where batteries are unsuitable though! (or even long term storage!)

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:11:00 +0000

“Why use biodiesel when it’s possible to switch over to forms of transportation that release no air pollution at all?”

Where are the ready-to-go technologies for electric propulsion of ships and heavy trucks? I would add aircraft, but they use kerosene. Other teams are working on bio-kerosene.