LS9 is putting the bio into biogasoline by using modified bacteria to directly produce hydrocarbons instead of ethanol or other intermediates, according to the BioConversion Blog, quoting Technology Review. LS9 has a number of big backers and is part funded by Vindod Khosla , the firm plans to build a trial plant in California to test the process.
I like the comment by Jim McMillan, principal biochemical engineer in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Bioenergy Center, based in Golden, CO he spoke to Technology Review and said: .
"I don't doubt that [making hydrocarbon fuel from microbes] can be done; the question is how quickly and at what cost."
I suggest that the difficulty will not be in the production process, but rather in the yield, and whether biological routes to biogasoline can be more efficient than using Fischer-Tropsch technology on gasses produced thermally degraded wood chips
Comments (1)
The problem has been extraction of the hydrocarbons being produced too quickly, leading to the prokaroytes' death due to them reaching a level that inhibits their continued growth. A recent biodiesel-from algae suffered this problem.
What's needed are highly efficient - energy efficient separation media.
Membrane type systems would be ideal due to few moving parts....
This would be ideal since we're dealing with a predominantly aqueous reaction media.
Workup and reaction technologies for this are a big thing at the moment.
Question is how close are such separation systems to commercialisation?! And will their through-put be high enough?
Posted by Mark C R UK | August 14, 2007 10:23 AM
Posted on August 14, 2007 10:23