

Scientists create bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol - chaostheory
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

======
dhs
This headline so reminds me of a poem titled "Annonce" ("Want Ad") which
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote A.D. 1811:

"Ein Hündchen wird gesucht, das weder murrt noch beißt, zerbrochene Gläser
frißt und Diamanten scheißt."

Roughly translates to:

"Looking for a doggy which will neither snarl nor bite, broken glass shall be
its food and diamonds be its shite."

------
ComputerGuru
I don't understand the last two paragraphs (before "Power Points").... the
article is mentioning "for the greater good" and some counter-arguments to
points that haven't been made in the article itself! The benefits of their
technology is clear, but they're defending it against arguments that have
(presumably) been made without telling us what they are...

~~~
LPTS
It's badly written. Another thing is people eat bacteria shit in the form of
yogurt and cheese all the time. So it's not like they should have a problem
putting it in their cars.

Those are some cool bugs though...

If you could break down sewage like that, you could link them up with an RV's
toilet or people's drainage fields and let them pump their own shit into their
gas tanks. Eventually.

~~~
daniel-cussen
You are an innovator if there ever was one. Kudos. Good luck with you
enterprises, though I'll doubt you'll need it.

------
danteembermage
One potentially untapped source of biomass might be grass clippings. It the
tanks could be small enough to be operated at the household level, then
perhaps one enterprising neighbor could buy the neighborhood detritus or offer
to convert it for them.

Even if it's not competitive price-wise there is significant value for (some)
people in feeling environmental; burning carbon negative gas in your car from
your yard would probably fit that category.

------
louislouis
It's quite an extraordinary achievement, but a lot of articles I've read on
the Internet reporting these extraordinary break throughs in
tech/medicine/health/etc, they never seems to materialize. The ground breaking
changes just fades. I've lost faith. I will only believe it when I see it.

