Oil Prices...Fundamentals or Not? | 27 comments (27 topical, 0 hidden)
This is news to me (none / 0)
From Crooks & Liars full story at site

Petrol Bugs

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that scientists in Silicon Valley have bred genetically modified bacteria that consumes agricultural waste and secrete crude petroleum oil.

That’s the good news. The bad news is…

I’m not quite sure. What about this pulling research and development away from cleaner renewable energy sources just to make more of the old stuff? Well, except… instead of pumping out more carbon into the atmosphere, this “Oil 2.0” is not only renewable but also carbon negative – it emits less carbon than is sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made. Oh, and the raw materials? Not going to be corn (so no more tortilla riots in Mexico City) nor palm oil (no more deforestation in the Amazon) – it eats wheat straw from California and woodchips from the timber industry in the South.

Well, how about everyone’s car having to be modified to burn the new stuff? Y’know, like hybrid and electric cars? Gee, um, nope. It’s completely interchangeable with fossil fuel oils we now suck out of the ground and refine. You wouldn’t even notice a change-over at the pumps… except for maybe the price once decoupled from OPEC.

How about cost? Hmm.

“Five to seven years ago, that process would have taken months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Greg Pal, senior director of LS9, the company making this stuff, says. “Now it can take weeks and cost maybe $20,000.”

by MedfordTim on 06/16/2008 07:17:56 PM EST

potentially useful (none / 0)
http://www.timesonline.co.u k/tol/news/environment/arti cle4133668.ece

May be ok, but basically its just a different form of fermentation that produces a different hydrocarbon than ethanol.  You still need to produce large quantities of biological material to turn into fuel.  It is also not clear if they are to the point where they can actually work with waste materials without breaking it down with large quantities of expensive enzymes.  Capital costs look like they could be enormous as well. 

"However, to substitute America’s weekly oil consumption of 143 million barrels, you would need a facility that covered about 205 square miles, an area roughly the size of Chicago"

I don't mean to say the reasearch isn't extremely important...we need to be throwing money at every crazy idea that has even a 1% chance of producing a little bit of energy, but the scale of the problem is soooo huge its like trying to fill a swimming pool with a shot glass. 

by alphasigmookie on 06/16/2008 08:24:43 PM EST

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Oil Prices...Fundamentals or Not? | 27 comments (27 topical, 0 hidden)