photosynthetic heterotrophs - I cant remember their name.. (Aug/22/2008 )
Hmm. More efficient? Maybe- you would not have to transport anything, as the fermentation could occur right there on the farm. But, you have to remember that Coal is VERY cheap. Low quality coal goes for something like 13$ per TON.
Not so significant as ag waste is cheap as well and sunlight is effectively free.
don't forget that coal shares with petroleum substantial health risks, esp. if ingested, due to aromatics the carcinogenicity of many being magnified by bacterial metabolism.
Coal doesn't have alot to recommend it for food application.
don't forget that coal shares with petroleum substantial health risks, esp. if ingested, due to aromatics the carcinogenicity of many being magnified by bacterial metabolism.
Coal doesn't have alot to recommend it for food application.
So you are saying that developing ag waste protein sources would be more efficient, effective, and cheaper? My my point is that in the long term perhaps coal would be more abundant than ag waste. Also, as we are switching to a carbon-free economy an alternative market for coal would be very attractive to the fossil fuel industry.
What about medicinal coal? I have to do some reading, but this stuff is sold at pharmacies, although it is probably purified..
My take on this is, if you can get a bug to use coal as a food source you would probably have cracked the problem of breaking down other complex polyaromatic compounds. I would think it would be a short hope to breaking down plastics. If you can do that, then nearly all human hydrocarbon waste could potentially be broken down. And a little rewiring, and you could have the bug extrude monomer that could be used for plastic manufacture.
And if the bug break down polyaromatic compounds as a food source, the bug would be a useful in treating industrial hydrocarbon carbon waste.
Agriculture waste is mostly water, and a large fraction is already used as animal feed. While sunlight is free, it is also a low density energy source. You need a large surface area to collect sunlight.
And Jorge does have a point, the bugs must be very efficient. They are liable to contaminate themselves with aromatic compounds.. making them toxic to eat. The red tape of getting GM creature to the dinner table would also be another challenge.
The carbon can come from coal, the nitrogen (in principle) from air, but the phosphorous has to come from somewhere. I'd guess that this is a problem worth worrying about. Recycling is probably the only solution. Type "peak phosphate" into google next time you are bored.
Peak phosphorous huh? Says it should peak around 1990, but we are still doing okay, I suppose.. except for the rising food costs.
I am thinking coal could be both a carbon AND an energy source for the microbes. After all, isnt carbon like the #1 element in the crust? If the heat/chemical energy in coal could be converted at 10% efficiency it would be a boon to the protein sector, according to my calculations..
My idea was to use directed evolution to coax certain bacterias to digest fossil fuels. By adding samples of coal and mutagens to a bacterial solution that already deals with similar compounds, it would not be too surprising to observe increased metabolism of the coal in a small percentage of the bacteria. Due to the mutation brought on by the mutagens, the bacteria would evolve very quickly to fill their new niche. This could be repeated over and over with bacteria singled out for specific traits, until efficiency is at an acceptable level. This could be a kind of brute-force approach to genetic engineering.