Microbiogen
Yeast - The Ethanol Alternative
A
revolutionary new yeast has the potential to make
ethanol a truly viable alternative fuel to petrol - and there's
something like a 150 to 200 billion tonnes of suitable waste material
made per annum in agriculture and forestry processes - that would be
more than we need to make total replacement of petrol.
Agrichar
Another Solution
to Global Warming
Today,
still practised in the hills of Lebanon, ovens are made by
packing clay directly around the fuel, making them air-tight - deprived
of oxygen the fuel is slowly burnt and the charcoal is used to enrich
the soil.
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Renewable
Soil
Soil Carbon Sequestation
Could Renewable Soil be the
secret weapon the world is looking for? Enhance biological activity in
the terrestrial biosphere - improve the productivity of agricultural
land - and carbon flow.
Microorganisms
Another Solution
to Global Warming
Microorganisms,
Worms and Beetles are all just doing what comes natural, they
love to eat shit all day everyday and work dirt cheap.
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Brewing
Energy
Beer
Wastewater into Electricity.
Creating
a microbial fuel cell, which feeds continuously on the organics in the
brewery wastewater, turning it into electricity and clean water.
Microbial
Fuel Cells
Microbial
Fuel Cells
A
microbial fuel cell (MFC) converts chemical energy, available in a
bio-convertible substrate, directly into electricity. To achieve this,
bacteria are used as a catalyst to convert substrate into electrons.
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Carbon
Capture & Storage
Dependance
on Oil-based Fertilizer and the Amazing Blue Green Algae
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Coal-fired power
stations produce CO2 and Carbon Capture & Storage is a hopeful
solution. Another way to look at it is we can sequester CO2 into plants
and trees (carbon storage). With power stations we can build a pond and
fill it with water and pump CO2 into the pond to force feed blue green
algae.
As my research
reveals, depleted soil is bolstered with nutrients made
from oil. The soil has not enough life to sustain food growth - unless
the land is left fallow for a season - but instead of allowing the soil
to recover - we substitute with external nutrients made from oil.
Which means when the oil runs out so
does
the food. And so my research took me into soil and CO2
sequestration, which led me to blue green algae, which grows at such an
enormous rate it doubles every day. In Hawaii there is a algae plague
and the best they can do is scoop it out of the ocean, dry it and use
it for fertilizer.
One
man's fertilizer is another man's
fertilizer.
One is derived
from oil base and the other is the fastest growing plant
on the planet - and could replace oil-based-fertilizer and sequest CO2
at the same time... and as it turns out algae is definitely the right
place to look at.
ALGAE
Yield per gallon of acre for biodiesel
Soy - 48 gallons an acre
Rape Seed (Canola) - 127 gallons an acre
Algae 10,000 gallons per acre
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Using
green algae to
produce
hydrogen from sunlight and water via photosynthesis
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Researchers
at the University of California at Berkeley have engineered a strain of
green microalgae that could, with further refinements, produce vast
amounts of hydrogen through photosynthesis. The breakthrough also could
have application in a wide range of products, from biodiesel to
cosmetics. Present efficiency is at around 30 cents / kW-h. In 2000,
when the technology was first announced, they were at 300 cents / kW-h.
Theoretical
optimum is at 3 cents / kW-h. This is based on observation of normal
photosynthesis processes. It is also based on a marketing model of
on-site hydrogen production and conversion to electricity, not
requiring hydrogen storage and transport.
Methods
of
improving efficiency
for commercial application include:
* genetic
engineering of algae
* physiological
factors to
enhance algae's production
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Image:H2algae_UCBerkeley.jpg
Mutant Algae Is Hydrogen Factory -
Researchers at the University of
California at Berkeley have engineered a strain of pond scum that
could, with further refinements, produce vast amounts of hydrogen
through photosynthesis. The breakthrough also could have application in
a wide range of products, from biodiesel to cosmetics. (PESWiki; Feb.
24)
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Antimicrobial
activity of blue-green
and green algae
The
methanolic extract of a blue-green alga and two green algae have been
investigated for in vitro antimicrobial activity against Proteus
vulgaris, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Rhizopus nigricans using agar
cup-plate method. Blue-green alga, namely, Microchaete tenera ; and
green algae, namely, Nitella tenuissima and Sphaeroplea annulina ,
showed significant antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas
aeruginosa . Microchaete tenera showed good antimicrobial activity
against Proteus vulgaris and Aspergillus niger. Sphaeroplea annulina
showed feeble antifungal activity against Aspergillus flavus .
Prashantkumar
P, Angadi SB,
Vidyasagar GM. Antimicrobial activity of blue-green and green algae.
Indian J Pharm Sci 2006;68:647-8
Prashantkumar P, Angadi SB, Vidyasagar GM. Antimicrobial activity of
blue-green and green algae. Indian J Pharm Sci [serial online] 2006
[cited 2008 Apr 18];68:647-8. Available from: http://www.ijpsonline.com/text.asp?2006/68/5/647/29638
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Biolytix
Wastewater Treatment
Microorganisms,
Worms and Beetles
When Nature is
firing, no
man-made art can compete,
Dean
Cameron observed what She's doing and has bottled it.
Microorganisms,
Worms and Beetles are all just doing what comes natural,
they
love to eat shit all day everyday and work dirt cheap.
Australia
is the driest inhabited continent on the Earth.
Using
drinking water to flush the toilet isn't one of our best ideas.
Using
Biolytix to recover either Black or Grey household water
is
just the beginning of their low-cost non-polluting systems.
The
Biolytix System uses
a diverse ecosystem living in an organic matrix to treat the
wastewater. It harnesses the energy stored in putrescible wastes,
including toilet waste, household food waste and paper products, to
nourish billions of microbes and a stable mix of invertebrate soil
decomposer organisms.
World
- Beating Natural Waste Treatment
"A
tenacious Australian inventor
has solved the waste treatment riddle
with a world-class system to turn all household waste - kitchen,
bathroom, laundry - into irrigation water - without chemicals."
As
an
ecologist and environmental scientist, he looked
to ecosystems
for the answer. He observed the succession of organisms that moved in
to break up various decomposing materials - and quickly found sponge
like patterns in the architecture of decomposition."
"He
also
studied the breakdown of forest litter in
rivers and in roof
gutters and observed that the fastest breakdown did not occur in the
water, as most engineers have assumed for well over a century, but was
occurring on the waterline, where the organic matter was moist but
surrounded by air not water."
"From
these
observations he knew intuitively that
human waste and
wastewater treatment were based on the wrong principles. Waste should
neither be left to pickle in a dry heap, as in many existing composting
toilets, nor left in the water to rot very slowly, like a septic.
The
waste
should be removed as fast as possible from
the water and
stocked with worms, beetles and other soil invertebrates, not just
microorganisms. Organic matter should be allowed to breakdown rapidly
and aerobically in a moist, organic, soil-like environment, created by
burrowing invertebrates vital to this natural 'biolytic' ecosystem."
"The
Biolytix
system achieved the best results in the
world for the
most compact system."
Biolytix
Has
Won 8 Prestigious
Awards.
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It is
sobering to compare the CO2 emissions
from soil with those from
the burning of fossil fuels. Dr Rattan Lal, Professor of Soil Science
at Ohio State University and Director, Carbon Management and
Sequestration Center, USA, has calculated that 476 Gt of carbon has
been emitted from farmland soils due to inappropriate farming and
grazing practices, compared with 270
Gt emitted from over 150
years of
burning of fossil fuels.
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Renewable
Soil
Soil
Carbon Sequestation
Could Renewable Soil be the
secret weapon the world is looking for? Enhance biological activity in
the terrestrial biosphere - improve the productivity of agricultural
land - and carbon flow.
http://renewablesoil.com
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Agrichar
Another
Solution
to Global Warming
A
long time ago in the Amazon, dark fertile soil full of charcoal,
pottery shards and compost was made - and even after thousands of
years, terra preta stores more than twice the carbon of other soils.
In
NSW, a giant toaster is making syngas by slowly burning crop
residues at low temperatures. The by-product of this renewable energy
is a charcoal that retains about half of the original carbon.
"Agrichar" technology. It uses the charcoal by-product to bury carbon
in topsoil where it¹s needed for agriculture.
Their
early results promise green energy, soil restoration and
greenhouse mitigation from an affordable technology that can remove
more CO2 from the atmosphere than is released.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2012892.htmv |
"A
single gram of soil (about 1/5 teaspoon) can contain over 100
million bacteria, 1 million actinomycetes and 100,000 fungi with hyphae
if strung together would measure 5 metres in length. The weight of
these organisms would only account for 0.05 percent of the weight of
the soil. Living soil and microorganisms. The size of a single bacteria
is approximately 1 micron or 1 millionth of a metre - 100,000 bacteria
placed end to end would measure 1 cm. - Wow !"
http://www.microorganisms.com/Living_Soil_and_Microorganisms.htm
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The
Greening of Planet Earth:
The
Effects of Carbon Dioxide on the Biosphere
What
effect does the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting emission
of carbon dioxide (CO2) have on earth's biosphere? This question is
posed to a number of leading scientists in The Greening of Planet
Earth, an enlightening documentary that examines one of the most
misunderstood environmental phenomena of the modern age.
The Greening of Planet Earth examines the role that CO2 plays as one of
nature's basic building blocks of life in the process of photosynthesis
and the evolution of the earth's biosphere. Evidence is presented to
show how current CO2 levels, which are 35 percent higher than in the
pre-industrial era, have greatly enhanced the growth of trees and other
plants. Results from controlled studies show how a doubling of CO2 in
the atmosphere, which is expected to occur over the next century, will
boost crop yields, increase the water-use efficiency of much of earth's
vegetation, and enhance the productivity of forests. The impact and
implications of such change are far-reaching.
http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/Index.jsp |
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Brewing
Energy
Beer
Wastewater into Electricity.
Creating
a microbial fuel cell, which feeds continuously on the organics in the
brewery wastewater, turning it into electricity and clean water.
http://awmc.uq.edu.au/ |
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Microbial
Fuel Cells
Microbial
Fuel Cells
A
microbial fuel cell (MFC) converts chemical energy, available in a
bio-convertible substrate, directly into electricity. To achieve this,
bacteria are used as a catalyst to convert substrate into electrons.
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One
alternative source of renewable substrates for large scale
bio-ethanol production is the plant biomass termed lignocellulose.
Relative to traditional feedstocks, lignocellulose is in plentiful
supply at low cost. Sources include corn stover, sugar cane bagasse,
wheat and rice straw, forestry wastes, waste paper, and other plant
based wastes. Their usage would be relatively low cost because they are
waste by-products from other industries such as agriculture and are not
used as human food.
Our
novel purely non-GM approach is based on our observation that
natural strains of S. Cerevisiae can in fact produce microscopic
colonies using xylose as a sole carbon source, provided they can be
incubated for long enough periods (1-2 months). This unexpected
observation directly contradicts scientific dogma established for many
years, which states that 'Saccharomyces cerevisiae cannot grow at all
on xylose'.
Using
technology based on natural breeding and evolution we have been
able to generate Saccharomyces yeast strains with improved ability to
grow on xylose. Using our strategies, the rate of improvement in growth
rate has been exponential. Doubling times of yeast have been reduced
from over 140 hours to approximately three hours. Extrapolation of
our data predicts that if growth rates continue to improve according to
the current trajectory, growth rates on xylose equivalent to those
observed on glucose will be achieved in approximately 18 months.
Significantly,
ethanol production commenced from our strains when their
growth rates became faster than approximately 6 hours per generation on
xylose mineral minimal medium. The rate of improvement in ethanol
production has been exponential and increased over four fold in five
months and is continuing to improve in concert with growth rate.
Our
data suggests that we will achieve industrially relevant rates of
ethanol production as early as 18 months from now. Biochemical
investigations into differences between slow and fast growing strains
reveals faster strains have a hundred-fold increase in xylitol
dehydrogenase activities, a 10-fold increase in xylose reductase
activity, and slight increases in xylulose kinase activity. These
differences indicate that our strategy is individually optimising
specific activities within the relevant biochemical pathways.
http://www.microbiogen.com/
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