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Scientists Find Microbes That Eat Garbage, Excrete Crude Oil
FOX News ^ | June 17, 2008 | Not Stated

Posted on 06/17/2008 12:12:54 PM PDT by Islander7

Scientists Find Microbes That Eat Garbage, Excrete Crude Oil Tuesday, June 17, 2008

"Ten years ago I could never have imagined I'd be doing this," says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. "I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to — especially the ones coming out of business school — this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into."

He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs — very, very small bacteria — so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as wood chips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.

Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: energy; environment; microbes; oil; oldnews; tentheditionoldnews
"All of us here — everyone in this company and in this industry — are aware of the urgency," Pal says.
1 posted on 06/17/2008 12:12:55 PM PDT by Islander7
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To: Islander7

So now we don’t produce enough trash?


2 posted on 06/17/2008 12:13:54 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Islander7

“poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us”

Uh, wouldn’t that bug crap have to be refined a bit first?


3 posted on 06/17/2008 12:20:19 PM PDT by Lee Heggy123 ("I have no intention of raising taxes." - President Bill Clinton)
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To: Islander7

I wonder if this could be used to liquify coal. Particularly the soft bitumen of the Illinois-Kentucky fields. It is just very old garbage.


4 posted on 06/17/2008 12:20:28 PM PDT by TexanToTheCore (If it ain't Rugby or Bullriding, it's for girls.........................................)
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To: Islander7
Imagine having this bug farm in your backyard... you put in compost....out comes oil a day or two later....then you back up the car to the heap and fillerup! LOL! ;)
5 posted on 06/17/2008 12:21:32 PM PDT by BossLady ("People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul" - Carl Jung)
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To: <1/1,000,000th%
How does a bug no the difference between garbage and food? My dogs can't tell the difference and they are supposed to be smarter than a microbe, although there are times when I wonder. Never-the-less, what's to keep these bugs from breaking out into the environment and turning the Sacramento Valley into a Tar Pit?
6 posted on 06/17/2008 12:21:57 PM PDT by dblshot
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To: Islander7

So when will the plant be up and running cranking out 3 million barrels a day?


7 posted on 06/17/2008 12:24:16 PM PDT by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: Islander7

There is that ‘unintended consequences’ that lurk in the background. So there’ll be some sort of farm - then PETA will get involved to make sure the buggies aren’t harmed - then what would happen in a mass escape?

I like the idea of having your own compost pile and backing up the car to fill it - so what do the bugs do? Eat then poop? How large are these bugs and can you make them bigger? More oil per poop.


8 posted on 06/17/2008 12:27:33 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("I Believe In The Law Until It Interferes With Justice")
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To: Islander7

So... now OIL is a RENEWABLE RESOURCE


9 posted on 06/17/2008 12:30:59 PM PDT by Samurai_Jack (ride out and confront the evil!)
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To: Islander7


Yer gonna eat lightning and crap thunder, Rock!
10 posted on 06/17/2008 12:33:39 PM PDT by Sig Sauer P220
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To: Islander7

I hate to break it to them, but this is how Crude is created in the first place... its a byproduct of biological or chemical forces deep in the crust. It has nothing to do with Fossils.

Coal is a fossile fuel, oil is not, never has been, and no we aren’t anywhere near running out of it.


11 posted on 06/17/2008 12:35:55 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay
this is how Crude is created in the first place

I knew this was a theory going around (The Hot, Deep Biosphere or something like that), but I didn't hear it was becoming accepted. Of course, I don't keep up, don't keep up at all . . . ;-)

12 posted on 06/17/2008 12:40:09 PM PDT by maryz
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To: Islander7
Excrete
13 posted on 06/17/2008 12:42:20 PM PDT by ASA Vet
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To: Islander7

I read about this a few years ago but I cannot recall where.

Been waiting for FR.com to post about it for a while now.

Don’t mind the posting police. We all can’t read every thread.


14 posted on 06/17/2008 12:47:33 PM PDT by Radix (Think it is bad now? Wait until you have to press "2" for English!)
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To: maryz

Well it hasn’t been accepted, but there’s not fiscal or political benefit to undermining the thesis that the communists are hoping will be their best hope to throttle back capitalism now is there?

Eventually, just like global warming, facts will eventually put the lie to the dogma going around on oil.

You just can’t explain abandoned oil fields “refilling” under the fossil fuel theory... just doesn’t work... yet its happening.


15 posted on 06/17/2008 12:53:04 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay
Coal is a fossile fuel, oil is not

I wonder why it contains biomarkers then?

Using Oil Biomarkers in Petroleum Exploration
http://www.oiltracers.com/biomarker.html

16 posted on 06/17/2008 12:56:35 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: BossLady

We’ll be putting septic fields back in...

Go green ! Take a crap in your fuel tank today ! <— well okay, maybe that is a bit too far fetched.


17 posted on 06/17/2008 12:58:32 PM PDT by MD_Willington_1976
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To: maryz
I knew this was a theory going around (The Hot, Deep Biosphere or something like that), but I didn't hear it was becoming accepted

No will you hear it accepted from the people who actually find and produce oil these days.

Thomas Gold, the author you referenced above, had lots of theories. Some of them include the moon was so covered in dust it wouldn't support landing craft or astronauts.

18 posted on 06/17/2008 1:00:12 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: HamiltonJay
abandoned oil fields “refilling”

Thanks -- that's very interesting. How many years (decades?) will it be before the MSM even notes there's a story there? (That's a rhetorical question -- we both have a good idea!)

19 posted on 06/17/2008 1:02:12 PM PDT by maryz
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To: thackney
Thomas Gold, the author you referenced above, had lots of theories

I'm more a language and literature type myself than scientific, but it seems to me people with a lot of theories frequently have good ones mixed in with the more crackpot ones . . . or vice versa. And sometimes it's a long time before things get straightened out!

20 posted on 06/17/2008 1:07:34 PM PDT by maryz
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To: Lee Heggy123
Uh, wouldn’t that bug crap have to be refined a bit first?

Nope. It's a liquid in its current state, so it could easily be poured into the Lexus. It's an entirely different question, however, with respect to whether the Lexus would run thereafter.

21 posted on 06/17/2008 1:09:24 PM PDT by FateAmenableToChange
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To: maryz
Perhaps one day I'll be shown wrong on this topic.

But after decades of trying,

Geologists using the “fossil fuel” concept are the ones that discover oil (not every time)

Those believing in aboitic formation of oil so far have only produced money from gullible investors and a couple time governments. Never is a commercial oil production found in this manner.

All crude oil is sourced to sedimentary rock. Hard to believe that is just a coincidence.

22 posted on 06/17/2008 1:15:28 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: All
"Scientists Find Microbes That Eat Garbage, Excrete Crude Oil"

Sooooo, maybe it's NEVER been "fossil" fuel; maybe, it's bacterial fuel after all! Maybe it's never been the dinosaurs that has created oil, just the bugs. Amazing!

23 posted on 06/17/2008 1:22:01 PM PDT by jackibutterfly
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Comment #24 Removed by Moderator

To: Islander7
""Scientists Find Microbes That Eat Garbage, Excrete Crude Oil"

I think those garbage consuming "microbes" are commonly known as Democrats.

25 posted on 06/17/2008 2:04:16 PM PDT by river rat (Semper Fi - You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: Islander7

Now, if we could only find those microbes that eat dust, I’d be a billionair!


26 posted on 06/17/2008 2:19:52 PM PDT by oneamericanvoice (Support freedom! Support the troops! Surrender is not an option!)
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To: Islander7
I wonder what excuse the environmentalist wackos will use to stop this technology? I'm sure something like if these bioengineered bugs ever got loose they would end civilization just like in the movies.
27 posted on 06/17/2008 2:49:24 PM PDT by The Great RJ ("Mir we bleiwen wat mir sin" or "We want to remain what we are." ..Luxembourg motto)
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To: HamiltonJay

Careful...some don’t like it when you tell the truth around here. Prepare to be flamed!


28 posted on 06/17/2008 2:50:56 PM PDT by crghill (Postmillenial, theonomic, presuppositional, covenantal Calvinist! Let reconstruction begin!)
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To: TexanToTheCore

TDP can do a lot with that.


29 posted on 06/17/2008 3:23:29 PM PDT by MSF BU (++)
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To: SkyDancer

The way to control this is by extracting the enzymes that catalyze the oil PRoduction and basically build an assembly line with them. The live bacteria can be
separated from production and carefully controlled.this most likely will not require genetic modifications.


30 posted on 06/18/2008 4:58:23 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Triple

But on the other hand there’s ANWAR and off shore drilling. I heard on Rush today where the Demo-idiots were saying the oil companies have a zillion acres of leases for oil drilling so they don’t need more - problem is they can’t drill because of all the environmental restrictions plus Congress .....


31 posted on 06/18/2008 10:31:46 AM PDT by SkyDancer ("I Believe In The Law Until It Interferes With Justice")
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