Cow Brains Into Biofuel

beatleadam writes "If the reality of $2.00 per gallon of gas does not scare you enough, then perhaps this will. '...Cattle brains, skull, eyes, spinal column, small intestine and other parts suspected of harboring mad cow disease were banned from human consumption in December as a safety precaution, shortly after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States...' The FDA is now funding research aimed at producing biofuels from cattle brains. What about the exhaust given off from cars that are burning Mad Cow Fuels?" It's the grand circle of life.

Comments

-1, FUD

[dant]

What about the exhaust given off from cars that are burning Mad Cow Fuels?

It, like the gasoline put into the car in the first place, will be composed of hydrocarbons vastly too short to be formed into prions.

Go read up on what refineries do and how they work. It will put your mind at ease about this 'threat', plus which it's a fascinating problem they have to solve. Every day a refinery doesn't blow itself to smithereens is a testament to the skill of the engineers who built it.

Perhaps not.

[Seraphim_72]

Mad Cow disease is a disease of prions - and from here

IV. PRIONS Prions are extremely resistant to conventional inactivation procedures including irradiation, boiling, dry heat and chemicals (formalin, betapropiolactione, alcohols). Most procedures reduce infectivity rather than eliminate it. All treated contaminated materials should be discarded through the infectious waste stream and incinerated. Use DISPOSABLE plastic labware whenever possible.

1. Complete and sign the Notification of the Proposed Destruction of Select Agents Form
2. EHRS will notify the PI or lab manager when destruction is approved.
3. Inactivate prions by one of the following methods:
4. * Autoclave dry waste at 132 C for 4.5 hours.
5. * Treat large volumes of infectious liquid waste containing prions with 1N NaOH (final concentration) followed by autoclaving at 132 C for 4.5 hours.
6. * Treat with phenol (1:1); guanidine hydrochloride or isocyanate (>4 mol/L); 1N NaOH (final concentration); sodium hypochlorite (>2% free chlorine) for 24 hours.
7. Dispose of inactivated prion waste as infectious waste.

Somehow I doubt you can made good fuel this way. Besides which I personally still wouldnt touch the stuff even after all of this had been done to it. And that is what I teach my students as well.