414 — Practical Sustenance

Eating Garbage & Excreting Crude Oil

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LS9’s bugs are single-cell organisms, each a fraction of a billionth the size of an ant. They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli, but LS9 modifies them by custom-de-signing their DNA. Using genetically modified bugs for fermentation is essentially the same as using natural bacteria to produce ethanol, although the … Read more

Life Form That Turns CO2 to Fuel

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“We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with CO2 as the fuel stock.” Simple organisms can be genetically re-engineered to produce vaccines or octane-based fuels as waste, according to Venter. Biofuel alternatives to oil are third-generation. The next step is life forms that feed on CO2 and give off fuel such … Read more

Openfaced Silicon Sandwich

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Several years ago, SunPower, a unit of Cypress Semiconductor, (CY) realized the top metal plate was reflecting the sun’s rays, cutting efficiency by reducing the percentage of sunlight converted to electricity. So the company decided to put both plates beneath the silicon. It now has an industry-high efficiency of 22% vs. an average of 16%, … Read more

Foldable, Bendable Battery Made from Paper

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It is a battery that looks like a piece of paper and can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed. While the battery is only a prototype a few inches (centimeters) square right now, U.S. researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who developed it have high hopes for it in … Read more

Researchers: Cellulosic Biofuels Already Cost-competitive

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So-called ‘second generation’ biofuels – made from lignocellulosic feedstocks like straw, grasses and wood – have long been touted as the successor to today’s grain ethanol, but until now the technology has been considered too expensive to compete. However, recent increases in grain prices mean that production costs are now similar for grain ethanol and … Read more