Harvard Scientist Engineers Bacterium That Inhales CO2, Produces Energy
30th May 2016
Oh, you mean like a plant?
The chemist who gave us the artificial leaf has genetically engineered bacteria to absorb hydrogen and carbon dioxide and convert them into alcohol fuel.
Fine. Does it scale? What does it cost?
When Harvard Professor of Energy Daniel G. Nocera announced he was working with bacteria last year, other scientists cautioned it would be difficult to achieve a productive level of efficiency. At the time, Nocera was aiming for 5 percent efficiency—about 5 times better than plants. This month at the University of Chicago, he announced his bug converts sunlight ten times more efficiently than plants.
Nice, if true. (How would you like to be a ‘Professor of Energy’? Sounds cool, doesn’t it?)
“I can just let the bugs grow exponentially. They’re eating hydrogen, that’s their only food source, and then they breathe in CO2, and they keep multiplying. They procreate, and that goes into an exponential growth curve.”
Cue the eco-nazi freakout about this stuff ‘escaping into the wild’ and converting all of the oceans to alcohol. (You know it’s going to happen.)