Black gold from Silicon Valley

Hidro, fuel cells, electric cars - other options to replace oil are urgently sought. But they all have drawbacks. Many Silicon Valley young businesses are using genetically modified bacteria and yeast to produce diesel from plant waste.

Currently no one knows how quickly the world's oil reserves will run out. Other options to replace gasoline are being sought and it seems that the race to become a fuel of the future is not over: hydrogen, alcohol, fuel cells, electricity - all possible.

But all those energy sources have drawbacks: Hydrogen transport is very difficult, alcohol production is competitive with growing food and electric cars are still lacking in large capacity batteries. But the biggest drawback is: All of these fuels need a completely new infrastructure - new pipelines, new gas stations and new engines.

"Extremely good oil quality"

It is best if everything is the same, if the oil never runs out and adds that it is not harmful to the environment. Transport is easy, high energy storage and has been stable for decades - there is no more ideal fuel than oil.

E.-Coli bacteria produce oil.(Photo: Amyris)

Newly established biotech companies, Amyris and LS9, also agree. They have transformed microorganisms so that they produce fuel that people can directly pour into gas tanks of cars. LS9 mainly uses genetically modified E.-Coli bacteria such as tiny, Amyris-based plants that are based on modified fermented mushrooms. Food for both species is sugar. Similar to a brewery, oil is "cooked" in a large tank. The only difference is that the product can be decanted easily - not complicated distillation like alcohol. "Oil quality is extremely good," said Uwe Sauer. Mr. Sauer is a microbiologist who studies microbial metabolism at Zürich Technical University. He is a consultant of LS9.

Gasoline from vegetable waste

"This synthetic oil is better than regular oil," said Sauer. Because crude oil pumped up from the ground is always of different quality. "Here one can produce oil at will in almost pure form."

From sugar to oil. That can't be the solution because people don't want to make the mistake of bioethanol. From now on the production of bioethanol from sugarcane or corn has increased food prices and caused many objections in developing countries.

So the goal of these companies is to produce gasoline from cellulose, ie from agricultural waste and agricultural waste. And this is simply a matter of scale: "Plant waste is the only raw material with the necessary amount , " said Sauer.

Chemically, cellulose is a polymeric made up of many sugar molecules. In order for oil bacteria to be able to use cellulose sugar, it must first be broken down into individual sugar molecules. "There are many good solutions for this. But it takes energy and money for the decomposition process. Oil production on its own is not much cost , " Mr. Sauer explained. The efficiency and cost of separating agricultural waste will determine the price of a barrel of synthetic oil.

Alexander Steinbüchel, a microbiologist at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of Münster (Germany), also said: "Now people are looking for ways to create bacteria that just feed them vegetable waste. that they will release oil. " Welcoming these breakthrough makers is the silver billion business opportunity.

According to LS9, they have successfully built a 1000-liter tank, producing an amount of oil equivalent to a normal oil barrel a week. Each oil-producing furnace needs an area of ​​3.7 m ₂ . That is, to meet the annual oil demand of an industrial country like Germany (747 million barrels of oil in 2007) with synthetic oil, people need an industrial zone of 53 km ₂ .

There is a plan to produce the first diesel in Brazil

"Road-based diesel production is just an intermediate step , " explains Mr. Sauer. Companies want to demonstrate as quickly as possible that their technology can now be used in industry. Brazil is a place with many advantages because there have been many political decisions there to completely not depend on oil through bioethanol. But the previous purpose is still the production of oil from vegetable waste.

LS9 is also ambitious: According to the company's information, in the next 3 to 5 years they want to produce commercial fuels that can compete with oil, which cost between $ 40 and $ 50 a barrel.

From now on, the price of a barrel of crude oil has exceeded the level of 140 USD. The IFP French Petroleum Institute said that by 2015, oil prices could be up to 300 USD per barrel. But until then, it could be that oil has been sprayed in Silicon Valley for a long time.