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Craig Venter, geneticist, to create fuel from CO2!

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posted on Mar, 29 2008 @ 11:43 AM
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Craig Venter has done it again. He beat the govt in the race to sequence the human genome, he has created artificial life, and now he has invented a way to make fuel from CO2, thereby solving three of the world's largest problems, i.e. climate change, pollution and clean energy. He has said it will be ready in about 18 months, he announced at a conference in Monterey, CA. Craig Venter is one of the greatest scientists of this century. This is not prison planet, Sorcha Faal or some other Mickey Mouse website. This is solid science. It gives me some hope for our future.

He announced "We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy." I really like that part!

Here's a link to the Google Search page "Craig Venter + CO2 fuel". There are many articles about this on different websites.

www.google.com...:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBR

Yahoo article:
news.yahoo.com...



posted on Mar, 29 2008 @ 11:55 AM
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Thank you for the info.
Well i will not be ecstatic just yet. This process has to use certain energy. There were conversions from CO2 and H2O into certain type of pro-fuels using solar energy. Not very effective, not to mention water being used. Probably he got something else, but it still needs energy and i fear will produce certain pollution. And IF GW theory is correct, CO is still a major player.
Will wait for details from the man with patent on our genes (and now our energy?).



posted on Mar, 29 2008 @ 02:53 PM
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Hi ZK: Can you point me in a direction of learning more about his patenting genes, I don't know very much, if anything, about that.
THanks!



posted on Mar, 29 2008 @ 05:26 PM
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reply to post by forestlady
 



Celera Genomics has made it clear that it entered the gene-sequencing race intending to eventually cash in on its findings, perhaps through applying for patents on individual genes.
"People think that patenting genes is patenting life, that's the cliche you constantly hear," Venter told CNN. "But genes are not life. They're just strips of chemical information that can be used in lots of important ways."

full link:
www.cnn.com...


Since the project ended (sort of..) they applied for certain "profitable" genes. Anywhere from 6000 to 300.
news.bbc.co.uk...

The legislation was changed due to public pressure and made harder to get those patents. So how much they actually got - i do not know. And they are not alone in this business.
But since i did not here him complaining and shares of Celera did not fell, i think he is doing fine. As others.
Anyway since 2001 this issue is kept silent. Not a lot of info.



posted on Mar, 31 2008 @ 07:54 AM
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Ummm...we need CO2 or all the plant life dies and us along with it. Harvesting CO2 for fuel will not work long term because eventually our thirst for fuel will grow to the point where we are converting too much CO2 to support life on this planet.



posted on Mar, 31 2008 @ 08:26 AM
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I will put this in the same bin as the 40% efficient, cheaply produced solar pannels or the power from salt water or any other amazing alternative power source. Sounds great but when will the public ever see any benefit from it? My guess is never.



posted on Mar, 31 2008 @ 09:42 AM
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reply to post by animekenji
 


I was hoping that I wasn't the only one who realized this. Using CO2 as a fuel on a large scale basis is a very bad idea for the reason you state, especially given that it already accounts for only a tiny percentage of the Earth's atmosphere.





[edit on 31-3-2008 by vor78]



posted on Mar, 31 2008 @ 10:08 AM
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Anime and vor78:
Running out of co2 is not a problem. Any fuel made with co2, will put out the same amount of co2 as there was to begin with. It's the first law of thermodynamics: matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another.
Here's an example: A tree uses the sun's energy to grow and live. When you cut down that tree and use it as logs to build a fire, that bright red color/heat you experience, is the sun's energy. When you burn co2 as a fuel, it will release that co2 energy.



posted on Mar, 31 2008 @ 10:12 AM
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Originally posted by Karlhungis
Sounds great but when will the public ever see any benefit from it? My guess is never.


If we could use co2 as fuel, (and there's plenty of co2!) we would be able to put the oil barons out of business. This is also Craig Venter's goal, BTW. With the oil barons out of business, we would have much cheaper fuel, and our environment would be much cleaner. Our addiction to oil is killing us, we have to get away from it and find some other type of energy for fuel. We're in Iraq because of oil. We wouldnl't need to depend on foreign countries for our fuel. So we could get out of IRaq and break the chokehold that the oil barons have on this country.
I'm sure there are lots of other benefits, but these are the ones just off the top of my head.



posted on Mar, 31 2008 @ 12:40 PM
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Originally posted by forestlady
Anime and vor78:
Running out of co2 is not a problem. Any fuel made with co2, will put out the same amount of co2 as there was to begin with. It's the first law of thermodynamics: matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another.
Here's an example: A tree uses the sun's energy to grow and live. When you cut down that tree and use it as logs to build a fire, that bright red color/heat you experience, is the sun's energy. When you burn co2 as a fuel, it will release that co2 energy.


I'm not worried so much about 'running out' of CO2 as I am the carbon and oxygen components recombining into other molecules as waste byproducts during the process and being lost in this manner. I know that the base elements cannot be destroyed in a chemical reaction.

If, as it seems, it is converting CO2 into methane, this turns out to be a non-issue. I was not aware of the byproducts of methane combustion in the presence of oxygen, but it appears to indeed be CO2 and water vapor. Organic chemistry was a loooonnngg time ago.



posted on Mar, 31 2008 @ 07:43 PM
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As I understand it, (and I may be very wrong about this) he intends to create some sort of nanotech molecules that would aid in the conversion from co2 to fuel.



posted on Jun, 16 2008 @ 03:20 PM
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reply to post by animekenji
 


The entire process would be "carbon neutral." the same CO2 molecules that these microorganisms use to make the hydrocarbon fuel will be released when combustion of the hydrocarbon occurs. The decrease in atmospheric CO2 concentrations would be marginal, and only result from allocation to incomplete combustion byproducts like CO. Hopefully these byproducts can be further reduced by better engine design and perhaps a CO devouring variant of the CO2 bug.



posted on Jun, 16 2008 @ 08:10 PM
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Hmmm, if you lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere enough, you will destroy most of the life on the planet. Plants need CO2 to survive. Global warming, if true (and there is no evidence to support it), would be a huge boon to mankind, potentially greatly increasing crop yields.

They probably want to reduce CO2 to create an ice age and to destroy the human race, or at least reduce it to managable levels, where it is easy to exert the desired forms of tyranny.

By the way his microbes produce methane which is a far worse and more dangerous green house gas. Imagine what would happen if the inevitable occurs and his bugs escape into the environment. Goodbye earth, with a very real and unstoppable global warming event.

Already genetically engineered franken-foods have been linked to the hideous DNA altering Morgellons disease.

[edit on 16-6-2008 by SevenThunders]



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