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GE Microbes Make Ersatz Crude Oil From Many Sources

Posted by timothy on from the hey-I'm-crude-and-oily-so-clone-me dept.

polymath69 writes "According to The Times Online, genetically modified microbes have been developed capable of turning surplus material such as wood chips, sugarcane, or others, not into ethanol, but into a substance which could substitute directly for crude oil. They claim it could be sold for about $50/bbl, and the production process would be carbon negative."

11 of 525 comments (clear)

  1. Public perception by tomalpha · · Score: 4, Funny

    <science scare story hat>

    Two quotes FTA:

    • "...capable of turning surplus material ... into a substance which could substitute directly for crude oil."
    • "They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli..."

    E.Coli, usually harmless etc, commonly found in the gut and able to survive brief periods outside it's normal (animal intestine) environment. So if this escaped into the wild, and you accidentally consumed a small amount, would it turn you into crude oil?

    </science scare story hat>

    No seriously, I can see tabloid newspapers having a field day with this: "Genetic Frankenstein Bugs Ate My Grandmother!"

    1. Re:Public perception by Ihlosi · · Score: 4, Funny
      So if this escaped into the wild, and you accidentally consumed a small amount, would it turn you into crude oil?

      Not likely. But it'd probably give you flatulence of unprecedented proportions.

    2. Re:Public perception by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh yeah, time for Stephen King to right a new book.

      He's wronged so many of his last books that it would be a good idea regardless.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    3. Re:Public perception by dintech · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually, maybe that's what tubgirl was up to.

    4. Re:Public perception by Grimbleton · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nah, this story needs some rampant sexual innuendo, pedophilia, and themes that would give serial rapists nightmares. Let's see... Is Piers Anthony in the middle of anything at the moment?

  2. Re:that's the ideal by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    obviously, solar energy is the ultimate renewable energy source

    Actually, there's already a way to turn solar energy into crude oil : grow plants, bury dead plants deep underground, wait several millions years, extract oil.

    You do realize oil *is* solar energy right?

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Re:Why talk by SnowZero · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, but they both "bring good things to life".

  4. Re:that's the ideal by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually, there's already a way to turn solar energy into crude oil : grow plants, bury dead plants deep underground, wait several millions years, extract oil. This is the society that produced instant oatmeal because people can't wait the five minutes it takes to make it normally. I don't think there will be enough patience to try it your way.
    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  5. Re:Why talk by heritage727 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What will be interesting is how the oil giants respond to this competition.

    DMCA takedown notices?
  6. Re:OMFG by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    can i say now that water is wet and get modded informative too?


    Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the temperature. Water isn't really very wet at, say, 0 degrees Kelvin.

    --
    My blog
  7. Re:Why talk by Ronin+Developer · · Score: 4, Funny
    They could _bury_ the competition!



    And, if a billion years or so, we might find yet another use for them...as oil.