Scientists find 'biofuel-making' fungus

Science and Development Network ^ | 11/13/08 | Paula Leighton

[Upstate NY Guy]

A fungus found in a Patagonian rainforest could provide an alternative source of biofuel, according to new research.
"Many fungi make ethanol, but none to date produce this kind of mixture of diesel hydrocarbons," lead author Gary Strobel, professor of plant sciences and plant pathology at the US-based Montana State University (MSU), told SciDev.Net.
A promising aspect of this discovery is that G. roseum produces myco-diesel directly from cellulose-rich products, skipping the fermentation step needed to produce ethanol, he says

[Upstate NY Guy]

Hard to say if this would be economically practical but it sounds promising. Lots of cool stuff yet to be discovered in the natural world.

[El Gato]

This is not going to make T. Boone a happy camper, he’s bet his money on using Natural gas in the big rigs. If this fungus makes diesel directly, well that a a Bad Thing, for Mr. Pickens. OTOH, maybe it will proved more expensive per BTU, and will only be used where LNG is not practical, such as on for aircraft

[ME-262]

How about skipping the fungus part and just burning the wood and straw feedstock at the power plant to generate steam to generate electricity like they do with coal, oil, natural gas and nuke heat? Then we can drive our clean electric cars on renewable electricity.

Or if need be build a steam car that runs on a flash boiler fed wood pellets. Good insulation, a high efficiency steam engine and a closed loop system could produce a very efficient car that could be powered by compressed air for the first 45 seconds until you got some steam boiled.

Let the big 3 automakers die so that we can get some new technology on the market.

[Upstate NY Guy]

"How about skipping the fungus part and just burning the wood and straw feedstock at the power plant to generate steam to generate electricity like they do with coal, oil, natural gas and nuke heat? Then we can drive our clean electric cars on renewable electricity."

Agreed. I do not believe the CO2 global warming theory but your proposal would silence that crowd as well. Most of the carbon in grass and trees gets released back into the atmosphere as CO2 anyway either as a result of forest fires or decay.

[steelyourfaith]

ping

[SunkenCiv]

also:

Fungus manufactures diesel
ukpress
Posted on 11/04/2008 10:47:47 AM PST by Prunetacos
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2124860/posts

[allmendream]

Sounds like a Fun-guy to be around!