Rainforest Fungus Synthesizes Diesel

Fluffeh alerts us to a report of a fungus that naturally produces diesel fuel, or something very close to it. "A fungus that lives inside trees in the Patagonian rain forest naturally makes a mix of hydrocarbons that bears a striking resemblance to diesel, biologists announced today. And the fungus can grow on cellulose, a major component of tree trunks, blades of grass and stalks that is the most abundant carbon-based plant material on Earth. ... [T]the paper's authors admit that the technique is far from any sort of industrial production. 'This report presents no information on the cost-effectiveness or other details to make G. roseum an alternative fuel source,' they write." NPR has an interview with the fungus's discoverer.

Comments

Pretty spiffy

[Blinocac]

if you ask me. I hope we are smart and research more ways to provide energy, and don't just hop on another band wagon technology.

Re:Pretty spiffy

[Drakkenmensch]

Indeed - by studying HOW this fungus synthesizes diesel-like molecules, it may be a simple matter of gene-splicing the right DNA sequence into a new bacteria that will do the same. The process for mass-producing and harvesting bacteria for human insulin molecules is well-known and cost effective, so adapting the technology rather than reinventing it from scratch would skip yet another development stage and rush this wonder into commercial use within just a few years.

Re:Pretty spiffy

[freddy_dreddy]

1. Using algae for biofeuls isn't just throwing a bucket of them in a swimming pool in the sun and letting them multiply. This is what it looks like, but think square miles instead of square meters for something that produces a meaningful amount of biofeul.
2. With algae you're limited in energy: If you have 100 Watt of sunlight per sq meter you have output = efficiency*surface*Power_per_sq_meter of biofeul energy - on a sunny day. Biofeuls from algae are like solar energy, they waste as much space and are costly to setup and postprocess. You're very limited where you can start such a business, and most are near the equator - but we see that this leads to rediculous situations (cfr. chopping rainforests to plant biofeul mais)

With fungi the output depends on the size of your operation, which is determined by the size of your (underground) tanks. Visit your local brewery and look at the conveyor which pumps out gallon after gallon. It doesn't matter where the cellulose comes from: old newspapers, mountains of leaves in autumn, milkcartons, hippies, ... Output = efficiency*input
Important is that they're compact and can be constructed almost anywhere.

Re:1. isolate the genes

[arthurp]

It would be carbon neutral only if the fuel was being created from biomass that was specifically grown for that purpose, in this case carbon would be grabbed from the air and then made into fuel. If the biomass would have existed anyway (this includes garbage even) then what you are doing to converting otherwise solid carbon (== not a problem for global warming) into gaseous carbon (== a problem) and that would not be carbon neutral.

Re:1. isolate the genes

[Anonymous Coward]

The biggest problem is going to be that fungi grow slowly and there isn't much likelihood to increase the production of the fuel to a large enough percentage to also sustain the life of the fungi that will have to live in its presence. Kinda like how yeast die off after the mash they've been sitting in eventually has a high enough concentration of alcohol to kill them.

Currently there are algae that produce long-chain hydrocarbons that equal about 40-85% of their dry weight and some thrive in the oils they produce. Algae also reproduce much quicker, doubling in mass every 1-5 days.

can't wait for this

[OglinTatas]

yet I won't hold my breath. In the mean time, I will continue to burn B20 and SVO in my old diesel.

In addition to brewing diesel from cellulose, I would also like to see biofuels manufacturers brew butanol (with Clostridium acetobutylicum, or better) from cellulose. Seriously, it is a much better gasoline replacement than E85. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butanol

In any case, foodstock based ethanol is the WORST FUEL SUBSTITUTE EVAR. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0512/p08s01-comv.html

If the chevy volt doesn't turn out to be a piece of shit, (yeah, good luck with that. Can GM manage NOT to make a piece of shit?) I would totally buy that for my daily commute and keep the diesel for my occasional interstate forays. Or maybe the Th!nk OX http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/03/think-ox-concep.html will be available in the US by then. Or maybe Toyota will get its head out of its ass and realize that not everyone thinks a hybrid is the future, and they will out-chevy-volt the chevy volt.

While I am enumerating my wish list, a 10 minute recharge battery, and start the infrastructure build-out by creating charging stations at toll-way rest areas, then add them to interstate rest areas (which tend to be 50 miles apart on most of the interstates I've traveled.) http://www.onelectriccars.com/lightning-gt-promises-10-minute-recharge/74/
That will "untether" electric cars, and is feasible with current battery technology. Then fueling stations can invest in charging devices if enough people have EVs in their area
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/electricity_locations.html

heh. I'm just rambling now...

Systems of Plants and Fungi

[billstewart]

Well I'm lichen your idea... Technically a lichen has a fungus and something that photosynthesizes, usually algae or cyanobacterium (or sometimes both). And the nutrients that get passed back and forth usually aren't cellulose, but maybe it'd be possible to get that kind of fungus together with a plant.

Alternatively, you could combine the fungus's cellulose-to-diesel features with growing cellulose-stalked grains, so instead of using corn to produce ethanol competing with using corn for food, you'd grow the corn, keep the seeds for food, and feed the stalks and cobs to the fungus for fuel.

Re:There are lots of ways to make diesel fuel

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, not true. Presence of a turbocharger has nothing to do with how refined/filtered it needs to be. All diesels have high tolerance parts in the injectors and pump, and filtering the diesel enough to protect the engine isn't that hard.

What you have to pay attention to is the ability of the fuel to act as a lubricant. So far, most biodiesel fuels do act as an acceptable lubricant for the injectors/pumps, so it really isn't a problem.

The thing that's restricting the use of the European engines is the presence of sulfur in U.S. diesel, which is automatically solved by the homemade stuff (there's little to no sulfur in the plant-based diesel fuels).