by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Bunnies, liposuction fat, Prince Charles’ leftover wine, day-old whale, the human poo bus, fire ants dipped in hexane, old beer, raging fireballs, vibrating blobs, dope, and even the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Take your pick and, yep, it’s all true, as the Digest discovers.
If you’re only an occasional reader in the world of biofuels, corn, sugarcane and veggie oils are the raw materials you’ll have heard the most about — lately, perhaps more about cellulosic feedstocks from agricultural and municipal wastes.
By most counts, the number of feedstocks is well over 100 in total. The fastest-growing source? That would be waste residues from agricultural, industrial, municipal, forest and animal sources.
But nature offers a tremendous array of life — life that survives by making energy for life and growth out of the materials around. Accordingly, the story of biofuels and its sources would not be complete without a look at some of the oddest materials and organisms used to make biofuels — either as raw materials or in processing them.
9 Unforgettable Classics
1. Human liposuction fat …
2. Bunnies …
3. Europe’s Wine Lakes …
4. The New Orleans Times-Picayune …
5. Prince Charles’ leftover wine …
6. Psychedelic corn …
7. Martian CO2 and space-based residues …
8. Human solid waste …
9. Day-old whale …
13 Extremophiles …
1. Pyrococcus furiosus — The Raging fireball. …
2. Caldicellulosiruptor obsidiansis …
3. Thermosynechococcus elongatus …
4. Opisthocomus hoazin …
5. Gribbles …
6. Ceriporiopsis subvermispora … P. chrysosporium and Pleurotus ostreatus …
7. Desulfurococcus fermentans …
8. Botryococcus braunii …
9. Caldicellulosiruptor bescii …
10. Ralstonia eutropha …
11. Thielavia terrestris and Myceliophthora thermophila …
12. Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum …
13. From amongst the Archaea …
3 Pests
1. Potato blight … yellow-green algae, heterococcus sp. DN1, …
2. Kudzu …
3. Fire Ant Jet Fuel? …
3 Vibrating Blobs and Fungi …
1. Rumen fungus …
2. Turkey tail fungus. … Trametes versicolor …
3. The Vibrating Blob … tunicates …
Wasted! 5 Groups working on Beer, Soda, Jam, candy, fruit and veggie waste
1. Soda Pop waste. …
2. Jams, jellies and candy …
3. Mixing brewery waste and manure …
4. More sugar! …
5. More beer! …
Don’t Smoke My Fuel! 6 ventures working on hemp …
2 more, from Panda poo and your digestive tract …
1. Super-performing human gut bacteria … Bacteroides intestinalis and Bacteroides ovatus …
2. Found wherever Panda Poo is collected or sold READ MORE