![Pyrococcus-1[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pyrococcus-11.jpg?w=900&h=675)
Pyrococcus furiosus Image: MIT click for more info
Posted on 03/27/2013 1:15:51 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
From the University of Georgia:
UGA discovery may allow scientists to make fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere
Pyrococcus furiosus Image: MIT click for more info
Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to transform the carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products. Their discovery may soon lead to the creation of biofuels made directly from the carbon dioxide in the air that is responsible for trapping the sun’s rays and raising global temperatures.
“Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants do-absorb it and generate something useful,” said Michael Adams, member of UGA’s Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
During the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to transform water and carbon dioxide into sugars that the plants use for energy, much like humans burn calories from food.
These sugars can be fermented into fuels like ethanol, but it has proven extraordinarily difficult to efficiently extract the sugars, which are locked away inside the plant’s complex cell walls.
“What this discovery means is that we can remove plants as the middleman,” said Adams, who is co-author of the study detailing their results published March 25 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. “We can take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and turn it into useful products like fuels and chemicals without having to go through the inefficient process of growing plants and extracting sugars from biomass.”
The process is made possible by a unique microorganism called Pyrococcus furiosus, or “rushing fireball,” which thrives by feeding on carbohydrates in the super-heated ocean waters near geothermal vents. By manipulating the organism’s genetic material, Adams and his colleagues created a kind of P. furiosus that is capable of feeding at much lower temperatures on carbon dioxide.
The research team then used hydrogen gas to create a chemical reaction in the microorganism that incorporates carbon dioxide into 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a common industrial chemical used to make acrylics and many other products.
With other genetic manipulations of this new strain of P. furiosus, Adams and his colleagues could create a version that generates a host of other useful industrial products, including fuel, from carbon dioxide.
When the fuel created through the P. furiosus process is burned, it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide used to create it, effectively making it carbon neutral, and a much cleaner alternative to gasoline, coal and oil.
“This is an important first step that has great promise as an efficient and cost-effective method of producing fuels,” Adams said. “In the future we will refine the process and begin testing it on larger scales.”
The research was supported by the Department of Energy as part of the Electrofuels Program of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy under Grant DE-AR0000081.
UGA Bioenergy Systems Research Institute
The Bioenergy Systems Research Institute at the University of Georgia supports alternative energy, fuel and materials production through the conversion of biomass. The institute encourages and facilitates research projects in bioenergy that pool UGA’s strengths in forestry, environmental science and engineering with carbohydrate science, genetics and microbiology. The institute also supports education and training of scientists as well as outreach projects designed to involve public and private stakeholders in the development of next-generation bioenergy technologies. For more information about the institute, see bioenergy.ovpr.uga.edu.
Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere
If these Bugs went viral,...we could drown in fuel...Oh NO!!!!
Go at throttle up. Woo Hoo! More CO2. My plants will love it.
created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change,
Frankly, given the choice between freezing to death or roasting, I'll take a heat pad and a heavy winter coat!
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When the fuel created through the P. furiosus process is burned, it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide used to create it, effectively making it carbon neutral,...
I find reassuring.
Do we have another Solyndra in the making? This artcle is less about science and more politics. It has the PC intro and PC proof that all those tax dollars wasted by the feds is really wasted on good stuff!
"Excess" CO2? "Trapped" in the atmosphere? I wonder who spelled those big words for the author?
This is what happened to Mars.
Any article that starts out with a flat out lie in the first sentence will be taken by me with a salt mine.
In order to recive funding....that must say they support the AGENDA!
Seconded and thirded! This so-called "fact" is very much open to question. It's the central point of this whole debate: do rises in CO2 levels precede or follow warming cycles? If they follow, as many prominent scientists believe, then the whole junk science AGW charade collapses.
Stop, this makes too much sense. Besides, the Bush Family will eventually go bankrupt in four de-generations.
Despite my earlier post, this is actually pretty cool. Only downside is we NEED some global warming right now...this weather has me wondering if the next ice age might already be starting!
See #7.
That’s not fair! You posted that while I was composing mine. lol
UGA, UGA, UGA!!!
Click the Image.
I may be old and slow ,....but ever now and then,...I get in a good lick.
I keep looking for a way to impress my grandkids.
What happens to the planet IF there is NOT ENOUGH CO2 in the atmosphere.??.....
Global COOLING?...
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