Fuel Found in Old Newspapers (cellulosic butanol)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/082511_fuel.cfm

Fuel Found in Old Newspapers

August 25, 2011

Kathryn Hobgood Ray
[email protected]

Here’s one way that old-fashioned newsprint beat the Internet: Tulane University scientists have discovered a novel bacterial strain, dubbed “TU-103,” that 
uses paper to produce butanol, a biofuel that serves as a substitute for 
gasoline. The researchers are currently experimenting with old editions of The Times-Picayune 
newspaper with great success.

TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces 
butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound, says David Mullin, associate professor of cell and molecular biology.

“Cellulose is found in all green plants and is the most abundant organic material on earth. Converting it into butanol is the dream of many,” says Harshad Velankar, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Mullin’s lab. “In the United States alone, at 
least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce 
butanol are thrown out each year.”

Mullin’s lab first 
identified TU-103 in animal droppings, cultivated it and developed a method 
for using it to produce butanol. A patent is pending on the http://tulane.edu/ott/tu-269-mullin-butanol-production-new.cfm">process.

…

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Let me get this straight.

If I take what I surmise from the first paragraph and combine it with what I surmise from the last paragraph...

This process works because newspapers are full of shit.

Hell, I could have told em that.