From Poison to Pistons

E. coli bacteria is the primary cause of food poisoning. We may be able to get even for all those stomach aches we’ve had by turning it into automobile and jet fuel. The biotech company Joule Unlimited, which is privately held and highly secretive about its work, has been granted a patent for "a proprietary organism," which turns tout o be an adaptation of the E. coli bacteria that feeds only on carbon dioxide and gives off liquid hydrocarbons that can be turned into diesel fuel, jet fuel and gasoline. If this is real, it means that our days of drilling for oil (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show) and tinkering with biofuels are OVER.

In the Globe & Mail, Neil Reynolds quotes a Joule spokesperson as saying that it now has "a library" of fossil-fuel organisms in its labs, each one engineered to produce a different fuel. They can produce ethanol a the rate equal to 10,000 gallons an acre a year. Millions of acres of prime farmland are now used to grow corn to turn into ethanol, and this is already resulting in food shortages. They claim that they can produce fossil fuel at a cost of $30 a barrel (oil usually sells for around $90 a barrel).

Here’s another alternative to fossil fuels: fusion. It’s a controversial method of producing energy that has been debated for many years (countries have even planned to go to the MOON to get the fuel for fusion reactors). Now two Italian scientists say they have solved the problems and are ready to produce fusion reactors. Sergio Focardi and Eng. Andrea A. Rossi say their reactor will be ready to ship within the year, and could be in mass production within 2-3 years. In the Before it’s News website, Sterling Allan quotes Rossi as saying, "To start up the reactor you have just to turn on a switch. The reactor works with enormous margins of safety, so there is no need of a particular skill. Just follow the instructions. The refueling is every 6 months and will be made by our dealers." Here at unknowncountry.com, we tell you the truth (and we correct ourselves if we’re wrong). If you want this kind of reporting to be there the next time you fire up your computer, be sure to subscribe today!