Methane-Eating Bacteria Could Combat Global Warming

realwx writes "New Zealand scientists have found a bacterium, named 'Methylokorus infernorum,' that eats a key global warming chemical. Found in a hot spring, the bug lives off of methane emissions from geothermically active areas. A scientist quoted in the article stated that a cubic meter of liquid containing the bacterium would consume about 11kg of methane each year. 'But Dr Stott cautioned that such an application was probably some years into the future. He said it was unlikely the micro-organism, which prefers acidic conditions of about 60C, could ever be added to sheep or cows' food to stop the animals releasing methane.'"

Comments

Just burn it?

[BlueParrot]

Wouldn't it be better to just collect the methane and burn it to displace coal/oil? Sure, you still get CO2 , but methane has the highest energy yield per CO2 yield of all the hydrocarbons, and it is orders of magnitude cleaner than Coal.

Re:Just burn it?

[vvaduva]

That would make too much sense :) Actually a lot of waste dumps are already collecting the methane released and using it for those purposes. Let's face it - this is BS propagandistic garbage; most likely coming from the same people saying that farting cows are destroying the world. First it was CO2, then it was freon, now it's methane, next will be rich capitalists who need their money taken away as punishment. Nobody is offering any real solutions, only blame. It's politics more than it's real concern for the problem.