A fungus found in Patagonian rain forests in South America has the ability to produce unique combinations of hydrogen and carbon molecules, similar to the diesel currently used as fuel in many vehicles. Scientists are excited about its potential as a biofuel which would reduce society’s current reliance on fossil fuels.
The fungus, Gliocladium roseum, produces its fuel-producing qualities directly from cellulose. This drastically shortens the time and energy required in converting and refining other biofuels currently being developed, a process which is not environmentally friendly as carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. And current biofuels are derived from food crops which take farmland out of production for human consumption, but the fungus can be grown in factories.
Discovered by Professor Gary Strobel, a researcher at Montana State University who described what he calls "myco-diesel," in a recent edition of The Journal of Microbiology, the fungus lives in the tissue of another plant. It occurs in rain forests throughout the world, but he states that when analyzed, Gliocladium roseum had qualities the other similar fungi do not have.
Dr. Strobel made the discovery by chance, while collecting fungus from the stem of a tree in an old forest in southern Chile. When he eventually got around to sending it off for sophisticated analysis, he discovered that this version of Gliocladium was unlike others he'd encountered before. More details are available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96574076.
Biofuels are produced from living organisms or from organic or food waste products. A biofuel must contain over 80 percent renewable materials. There are many pros and cons to using biofuels as an energy source. The most compelling reason is the fact that, unlike petroleum and coal, biofuels are derived from plants and their byproducts and therefore are completely renewable. And it is a completely clean fuel source.
Equally exciting is the potential of wind energy, which has been proven in various parts of the world to be sustainable and low-cost. However, the drawbacks of wind energy include the potential danger to the hundreds of birds that are killed in the big machines, and the noise they create which disturbs nearby residents and scientists are currently working on eliminating these problems.
Used cooking oil from restaurants and businesses is currently being collected in various municipalities in North America as an alternative fuel for the city’s fleet of public vehicles as well. It is hoped that the practice could be enlarged to include pickups at households as well. The used oils are transported to biodiesel plants for processing that have been built nearby. Many other possible alternatives are currently being examined in laboratories around the world.
Experts disagree on the amount of conventional oil supplies that are left but many feel that within 10 years, a crisis will erupt as powerful nations compete for the ever-dwindling amounts of energy-producing substances.
Combustion of fossil fuels is considered to be the largest contributing factor to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, creating air pollution, water pollution, accumulation of solid waste, land degradation and human illness. It is hoped Dr. Strobel’s discovery, as well as other promising alternatives, will soon provide the world with an affordable, clean source of energy.
