Propane biosynthesis by eColi...

[MohRokTah]

If this is commercially viable, fracking could become a thing of the past:

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140902/ncomms5731/full/ncomms5731.html

[superpatriotman]

1. See, Peggy?

I told you propane and propane accessories would save the planet!

[MohRokTah]

2. .

[meow2u3]

3. Save gas--fart in a jar

Or better yet, a storage tank in your basement.

Question is, do we humans have enough E. coli in our guts to produce enough propane or methane?

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Quit trying to blow this off.

It's a serious subject. The savings could be gastronomical.

[meow2u3]

5. DUzy

[MohRokTah]

6. The real question is, can E. coli be grow in large enough quantites to make the production viable.

It's possible, but will probably require genetic modification.

[quaker bill]

7. Yes to both

Reading the article, the E. coli absolutely have to be modified to include a gene that codes for an enzyme natural to a species of blue green algae. In fact the article reports that they have already done so, which is why it works in a vial.

If it were not for obvious food limitations, E. coli reproduce at a rate which would cause a single colony to have a combined mass larger than the planet in about 20 to 25 days. (they double in number every 20 minutes until food runs out or their own waste products kill them)

Remove the waste and keep the food coming and you can have as many of them as you want. They are very easy to culture, which is why they are used as models for such experiments, that and the fact that their entire genome is sequenced and biologists know every last bit of their biochemistry...