Newsweek Interview: Craig Venter's CO2-Eating Miracle Bacterium
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 06.15.08
Image from TED Conference via flickr
This week's issue of Newsweek features an interview with Craig Venter, the "bad boy" of science whose work developing new bacterial strains capable of eating CO2 and producing fuels we've chronicled in recent months, in which he reveals more about his Maryland lab and the innovative processes it's pioneering.
As we've described before, Venter's overarching goal is to produce microorganisms that are able to "convert things like sugar or sunlight or carbon dioxide into fuels that people are very familiar with, like diesel fuel and gasoline," as he himself put it. These would constitute not only the fabled second- and third-generation biofuels we keep hearing about (like cellulosic ethanol and other plant biomass-derived fuels) but even so-called "fourth-generation" biofuels -- those produced directly from CO2.
Venter hopes his bugs will supplant the need for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies by making CO2 a commodity, instead of a byproduct to be disposed of. According to Venter, large, bacteria-processing fermenters, similar to those used to make beer and wine, would replace traditional refineries. He expects the first generation of his engineered bacteria to be commercially available within the next year or two years. He made it a point to stress that he and his colleagues were thinking "in terms of years, not decades."
Those concerned about how these bacteria-produced fuels will integrate into our present energy infrastructure need not worry, Venter explains; in fact, they won't even require the type of adjustment that even corn ethanol needs. This is because Venter's fuels can be produced with very little water, which minimizes damages to car engines.
Of course, those familiar with Venter and his work know that any of his statements should be taken with a heavy grain of salt. He isn't called the "bad boy" of science for nothing, after all. Regardless of one's views about his outsize personality, one certainly can't deny he is a visionary in many respects. Here's how he describes some of the impacts he foresees his inventions will have:
The fuel-and-oil industry is a multi trillion-dollar industry, so I think there is room for dozens to a hundred solutions, each of which could create trillion-dollar industries. The same oil that gets burned as fuel is also the entire basis for the petrochemical industries, so our clothing, our plastics and our pharmaceuticals all come from oil and its derivatives. There are multiple billion- or trillion-dollar industries out there that new inventions will help spawn.Right now oil is being isolated around the globe, and there is a major effort in shipping, trucking and otherwise transporting that oil around to a very finite number of refineries. Biology allows us to make these same fuels in a much more distributed fashion. I envision maybe a million micro-refineries. Companies, cities and potentially even individuals could have a small refinery to make their own fuel. This would eliminate a lot of the distribution problems and associated pollution.
It could all yet come apart, of course, but now, more than ever, we need ambitious individuals like Venter out there working hard to tackle climate change and our energy crisis.
Via ::Newsweek: A Bug to Save the Planet (news website)
More on Craig Venter
::TED Video: Craig Venter on Synthetic Life and Making Fuel from CO2
::Geneticist Craig Venter Wants to Create Fuel from CO2
Synthetic biology
::Getting a Patent on Life?
::You Got Bacteria in My Gas: Engineering Microbes to Make Hydrocarbons
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This is fantastic, with enough of these little CO2 eating monsters we could get CO2 down to like 40PPM and then . . . oh wait, destroy all life on planet earth and reverse the wonderful trend of the huge increase in biomass the earth is carrying thanks to the nice weather and high CO2 concentrations.
Now this is really great news. Making hydrocarbons ourselves is a potentially great plan. Where better to get the fuel for the gas stage of those plug-in hybrids than from atmospheric CO2? Plus we'd no longer have the problem of having to refine fixed proportion s of diesel and gas from the same barrels of oil.
Plants and bacteria eating co2 is a very old idea. The problem is, all biological organisms that eat co2 require energy from the sun. We need to ask how efficient the conversion of sunlight to fuel is. And if you are using the organisms for fuel you don't really take anything out of the air. And where are we going to grow these organisms? We need to ask if there is anything better we can grow there. Trees would probably be better. Thinking about the desert? Solar will be better. So anyway, here we are, ready to invest in something not proven. And for a purpose we already have solutions for. Trees, solar voltaic, wind and conservation and birth control. Folks, these things work. They have been proven. Yes we need better batteries and better materials. Only physicists can provide these. For this we need education. For this we need money. For this we need to raise taxes on the wealthy. That is what we need. I would really appreciate it if you guys at tree hugger would stop plugging for your venture capitalist friends and your libertarian friends. We need, really, to take power from the wealthy all over the world. Yes, class warfare. Yes, tax the heck out of them. Let them sell their mansions and beemers and mercedes and their jets. We don't need them anymore.
The only solution ultimately to all these problems is stopping and reversing over population..... period
Looks like an innovative idea to tackle the C02menance but we also need to address the issue on an individual and society level and there are ways where we can cut down on emission levels for instance start taking a walk for short distance rather than using using you car ,plant more trees and of course control the ever growing population.
Here's what we have to do to save the planet. It makes so much sense. I can't believe I am the first one to think of this, it is just so obvious.
What we do is, everyone hands their stuff to a small gang of armed overlords, and we let them spend it and tell all the rest of us what to do. Oh also it's a really fun game because if you don't obey the overlords you can go to a fun place called prison holiday, where everyone else pays for your food and shelter and gang rape. It's a pretty fun game.
Remember people, the problem is NOT government. Government is here to protect us and provide for us, and if we wish real hard it'll come true. Honest!
Personally I hope they outlaw something soon, and maybe also make something else mandatory to compensate. Of course the most fun is when they make the same thing illegal and mandatory at the same time. And of course raise taxes. And add new taxes.
Cmon people! Wish real hard with me! I can feel the planet getting greener already.
I agree with the thread that Anthony writes;
Trees, solar voltaic, wind and conservation and birth control. Folks------- We should all remember,
plants and hydrocarbon burning vehicles are not alone in expending carbon d. Will these organisims feed on the very air we ,(or our pets) breath out?
"We need, really, to take power from the wealthy all over the world. Yes, class warfare."
Your revolution is over Mr. Marx. Condolences! The bums lost!
probably the most important point he makes is about the DISTRIBUTED nature of this type of tech. Local sourcing has got to be the centerpiece of the new energy paradigm. this goes for solar, wind, and gasoline substitutes like this (when feasible). we cannot continue destroying wilderness and using wasteful, harmful distribution/transmission processes to feed our energy needs when the tech is ready, willing and able to be localized and decentralized NOW.
To those that have commented on over population - I believe over population is a big issue too, but I never see any one suggesting how the problem might be solved. I believe this is because there is no feasible solution besides widespread self control. And unfortunately I don't have much faith in the masses to exhibit restraint when it comes to making babies. The government can't tell people what to do in this area, and so many believe it is not only their right, but their obligation, to make as many replicas of themselves as possible. Someone please enlighten with some ideas on how we, as a planet, can effectively and ethically stem the population explosion..
While possible in theory, the economic viability of the CO2 eating algae is doubtfull at best because of better options. For instance, photovoltaic cells can convert solar energy directly into electricity with an efficiency of 10 to 30% and improvements to 40% are contemplated.
Algae can grow with 12% efficiency and the resulting biomass fuel can be turned into electricity with 40% efficiency at the very best - an overall efficiency of 4.8% using very expensive state of the art technology.
Even if near 100% efficiency photosynthesis were possible, thus bringing the proposed overall conversion efficiency to 40% the whole process would be way more complicated and expensive than the photovoltaics that we are expecting on the market in the next few years. Thus, in spite of the proposed biological breakthroughs future seems clearly photovoltaic.
More info concerning conversion efficiencies can be found at http://kansas.sierraclub.org/Wind/AlgaeReactors.htm
While possible in theory, the economic viability of the CO2 eating algae is doubtfull at best because of better options. For instance, photovoltaic cells can convert solar energy directly into electricity with an efficiency of 10 to 30% and improvements to 40% are contemplated.
Algae can grow with 12% efficiency (that's the record so far) and the resulting biomass fuel can be turned into electricity with 40% efficiency at the very best - an overall efficiency of 4.8% using very expensive state of the art technology.
Even if near 100% efficiency photosynthesis were possible, thus bringing the overall solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency to 40% the whole process would be way more complicated and expensive than the photovoltaics that we are expecting on the market in the next few years. In spite of the proposed biological breakthroughs future seems clearly photovoltaic.
More info concerning conversion efficiencies can be found at http://kansas.sierraclub.org/Wind/AlgaeReactors.htm