The other day I watched Mike Rowe’s show on The Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs. The episode focused on dirty jobs (predictably) with an environmental agenda. Mike’s theme throughout the episode was that such jobs were proof that the color of environmentalism is not green but rather brown. I then got to enjoy him come in contact with various forms of filth and feces. Well, more evidence to support this assertion. It seems that a company in San Jose has genetically engineered a very small but that eats wheat straw and wood shavings and excretes...petroleum. It poops gas. And this gas needs very little in the way of refining before it is ready for the pump and ready for your regular old car...no special modifications required.
Of course just having more petroleum to burn isn’t necessarily a good thing, right? It seems that the stuff we’ve been burning up to this point has had some less than favorable effects on the environment. Interestingly, crapoleum these bugs produce is carbon neutral.
Of course large-scale production of the stuff is a bit beyond the company’s means at the moment and I doubt that the oil industry is going to finance additional research but it is pretty interesting stuff...very sci-fi. You can read more about it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment