Bacteria That Produce Diesel Fuel – Has Genetic Engineering Gone Too Far?

I'm proud of you.

Concentrate on your fear

rather than your (knowledge) of legitimate threat.

Note : The Cave man was once afraid of FIRE.

I'm not defending or attacking genetic engineering, but surely you realize that fire destroys nature and peoples homes every day.

Yes, you probably are the only one that's worried. At least here on CR4.

What do you think they're going to do, release the bacterium into the wild and skim the diesel off the surface of lakes and ponds?

Here's a little reading for you.

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0856810.html

Cyanobacteria producing ethanol is, for starters, old news.

Secondly, how do you think we make beer? Yeast produce ethanol. There is nothing nasty or scary about it (except for the morning after Paddy's day)

Ethanol is a pretty ordinary byproduct for single celled organisms. Tapping it as fuel, great, why not.

I've read about these breakthroughs for several years. It's one thing to have a lab filled with scientists and equipment that work for 6 months to produce a gallon of diesel, ethanol, etc. Ramping it up to produce millions of gallons a day at a reasonable price is the hurdle they all fail to clear....so far.

How is this Nano technology?

There is a similar & much better Blog Entry

My only experience with bacteria and diesel fuel is bacteria can grow in it and foul filters and injectors, particularly if there is any water contamination over long storage periods such as with standby emergency generator tanks. Maybe this fuel eating bacteria can be altered to produce more fuel?

"...cyanobacterium that produces a material "identical" to ethanol...engineering an organism to produce diesel..."

I'm confused. Ethanol and diesel are not remotely the same. Which is it that you are concerned about cyanobacteria producing?

You're right! It is about diesel production by cyanobacterium (I thought it was ethanol only).

One thing for sure, it will change the face of the fuel industry if it can be scaled up as expected. The efficiencies are so much better, farming biofuel will be history. Which is good, too, since we need that land to grow food.

Since the process utilizes waste C02 and sunlight, I guess it's carbon neutral as well.

The only possible downside that I can think of , is to ask what safeguards are in place to ensure the organism doesn't escape into wild waters, where production of diesel would damage the environment.

The organism is grown in a "non fresh water" solution. I'll assume that is not sea water or equivalent, which would pose an escape risk into marine environment. Probably engineered with a limiting nutrient or something of the kind, to make it less adaptable to natural environments.

It's established that the GMO is super-productive photosynthetically, which would tend to be an advantage over others in the wild (outgrow em). So safeguards are important, to make sure there's no escape.

The phrase " 'identical' to ethanol" is stupid. Ethanol is a simple enough molecule to determine whether some other molecule is identical to it or not. Trying to put "scare quotes" around the word "identical" is just a dopey word game.

You're absolutely right. A molecule identical to ethanol is ethanol, plain and simple.

Joule Unlimited's FAQ about the diesel-producing cyanobacterium says that it has been engineered so that it cannot survive outside the system.

I would be interested in seeing more detail about the manner this has been engineered, and whether any additional safeguards are in place (or necessary) to prevent the escape of the diesel gene into a wild population in the event of a physical breach of the system. Cyanobacteria are extremely adaptable and are found in virtually every habitat on earth, so there is a high probability of immediate contact with wild types in case of a physical breach.

It's really no surprise that people are suspicious and concerned about GMO's and the escape of genetic modifications into the wild, considering the history of Monsanto.

We Need To Stop Fooling With Mother Nature Before We Create Something We Will Regret The Rest Of Our Lives!!!

Cyanobacteria have been around for 3+ billion yrs in vast numbers, are able to evolve rather quickly, probably evolved very rapidly 2-3 billion yrs ago when their genomes were young and their numbers were astronomical, have survived vastly different climate, water chemistry, and atmosphere and every extinction event.

It's almost a slam dunk that some would have naturally evolved to produce a diesel-like compound on multiple occasions if it were advantageous to do so. My guess is that it is not. It would be producing a molecule with a lot of fuel value and expending significant energy to do so. It would have to confer some significant advantage to offset this metabolic cost. I see none.

If they were not out-competed by other organisms, they may well have been immediately predated into extinction. Just maybe they exist to this day in some remote niche. If they do, they are probably in a symbiotic relationship with the organisms that surely evolved to consume this high-energy food source. Personally, I'm not all that concerned.