DailyDirt: Storing Energy In Organic Molecules

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Petroleum products are a pretty convenient way to store energy. It's just unfortunate that burning the stuff releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Biofuels could be a solution, but relying on natural biological processes can be difficult to scale up -- especially if we expect biofuels to try to match up with the current energy demands. Researchers are working on ways to modify biology or circumvent it with chemical engineering to make some carbon neutral hydrocarbon fuels in large quantities. Here are a few possible examples. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: bacteria, biofuel, biotech, carbon dioxide, electricity, energy, ethanol, extremophiles, fuel, hydrocarbons, petroleum, propane


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Sep 2014 @ 7:32pm

    uh, why propane when bacteria already make plenty of methane?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      CK20XX (profile), 16 Sep 2014 @ 8:55pm

      Re:

      The difference between propane and natural gas is like the difference between gasoline and crude oil. It's just better and more useful all-around when refined from its natural state. Of particular note, methane is a harmful greenhouse gas while propane is not.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Mr. Oizo, 17 Sep 2014 @ 12:05am

        Re: Re:

        Doesn't really matter since it is supposed to be burned anyway.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          CK20XX (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 12:46pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          The object isn't to just burn them and screw the details. The object is to get useful and efficient energy from them.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 17 Sep 2014 @ 1:06am

    Bugs Feeding Only On Electricity May Live, But They Cannot Grow And Reproduce

    Just thought I’d point that out.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Sep 2014 @ 2:37am

    "Petroleum products are a pretty convenient way to store energy."

    How do we store energy in those products?

    I left a can of regular gas plugged in overnight and it didn't even turn into high-test.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    jim, 17 Sep 2014 @ 5:08am

    Eh?

    Some problems, CO2 is a good gas, plants use it to produce foodstuffs for animals. I like to eat animals, therefore good gas. Second problem, is if cardox is bad, why try to produce more synthetically, making it more expensive to obtain. Now I would agree to more efficient systems, less wasted heat for the amount of gas consumed. Redesigned systems to capture the waste heats and produce something usehul from that.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 11:54am

      Re: Eh?

      "CO2 is a good gas, plants use it to produce foodstuffs for animals. I like to eat animals, therefore good gas."

      This is much too simplistic. CO2 is a gas that has both good and bad effects. As with most chemicals, whether it's good or bad depends on a combination of things -- mostly where it is and how much of it is there.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Coyne Tibbets (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 11:27am

    Carbon dioxide to ethanol at room temperature

    Combine that copper catalyst process that converts carbon monoxide to ethanol, with this Brookhaven room temperature process for converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, and you would really have something.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.