Fuel Producing Bacteria

clipped from memebox.com Luca Technologies raises $76 million for microbes that 'eat' coal, 'breathe out' natural gas clipped from www.technologyreview.com Fuel from Coal-Eating Microbes A process for converting coal into natural gas could help reduce emissions. Luca Technologies, a startup based in Golden, CO, has raised $76 million to scale up a process that uses coal-digesting microorganisms to convert coal into methane. The process is designed to operate underground, inside coal beds. Methane, the key component of natural gas, can then be pumped out and used to generate electricity or power vehicles. Gas bugs: Methane-generating bacteria on a coal sample from Wyoming's Powder River Basin, viewed by scanning electron microscopy. Credit: Luca Technologies clipped from www.lucatechnologies.com

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How a Geobioreactor Functions

The biogenic creation of methane from a higher molecular weight hydrocarbon source is a multi-step process, most likely accomplished by a consortium of microorganisms acting together in a symbiotic fashion. Through a series of steps, various organisms in the consortium breakdown the large hydrocarbon molecules in coal or oil into intermediate, water-soluble compounds, which are then reduced to even smaller hydrocarbon molecules, and finally metabolized into methane by a group of organisms known as methanogens.

In order for a Geobioreactor to function, the appropriate environmental conditions must be present, including an abundant hydrocarbon substrate (such as a coal bed), a water-saturated environment, a complete absence of free oxygen, and the presence of the correct consortia of organisms.

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Luca Technologies raises $76 million for microbes that 'eat' coal, 'breathe out' natural gas
Technology Review: Fuel from Coal-Eating Microbes
Luca Technologies
Green Technology Forum » Blog Archive » Luca harnessing microbes that convert coal into methane

Massive gas field detected

clipped from www.centredaily.com A deep reservoir of long-hidden natural gas, stretching from New York through Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, could pump more than $400 billion into the Mid- Atlantic economy and push the U.S. toward energy independence, a Penn State researcher has found. Penn State Geosciences professor Terry Engelder shows the natural hydrolic fractures that occurred in a sample of shale. Penn State Provided Photo clipped from www.nextenergynews.com "Conservatively, we generally only consider 10 percent of gas in place as a potential resource," says Engelder. "The key, of course, is that the Marcellus is more easily produced by horizontal drilling across fractures, and until recently, gas production companies seemed unaware of the presence of the natural fractures necessary for magnifying the success of horizontal drilling in the Marcellus."