Lab makes renewable diesel fuel from E. coli poop (CNN)

By Marsha Walton
CNN

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Fossil fuels that keep our planet running -- oil, natural gas and coal -- were created from the decomposition of plants, plankton and other organic material over millions of years.

Today, scientists all over the globe are working to create fuels with the same properties but without that pesky 100 million-year wait. And "renewable petroleum" is now a reality, on a small scale, in some laboratories.

The biotech company LS9 Inc. is using single-celled bacteria to create an oil equivalent. These petroleum "production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope.

"We started in my garage two years ago, and we're producing barrels today, so things are moving pretty quickly," said biochemist Stephen del Cardayre, LS9 vice president of research and development.
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"I think that the answer to reducing our petroleum-import problem and reducing the carbon emissions from transportation is really threefold," he said. "It involves replacement fuels like biofuels, it involves using much more efficient vehicles than we use today, and it involves driving less."
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/08/12/bug.diesel/index.html#cnnSTCText

Oh, those pesky scientists and their reality-based ideas about using less! Someone give this guy a big payoff and shut him up. :sarcasm:

(On another note, does anyone remember the old days when CNN wasn't the last one on a story?)

I think it's the perfect name.

... is get together with the US beef producers and they've got
an endless supply of feedstock ...

:hide:

Oh, and the broadcast studios of RW hate radio?

:puke:

Quick! Into the poopmobile!