Can biodiesel from a Patagonian fungus be among us?
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
If someone from a university said they could make fuel from fungus, one might surmise that they’d been hitting the ’shrooms a little hard of late. But Professor Gary Strobel of the Montana State University (MSU) microbiology department seems more or less compos mentis.
Strobel and his team went on an expedition to the rain forest of Patagonia and discovered a certain fungus, known as Gliocladium roseum, living in the branches of ancient ulmo trees (Eucryphia cordifolia). They found it was giving off a vapor with the same medium-chain hydrocarbons that occur in diesel, along with alcohols and esters that could combine to burn more efficiently than conventional diesel.
“These are the first organisms that have been found that make many of the ingredients of diesel,” said Strobel, who travels the world in search of exotic plants containing beneficial microbes. “This is a major discovery.”
Because the fungus can grow on cellulose, it means that biodiesel might be produced at a more cost- and energy-effective level, without having to affect the food supply. More work is needed, but Strobel is on the case. “We’ll do some scale-up and fermentation,” he said, “then get enough to run a little engine. If we can do that, we are in business.”
Photo credits: Montana State University/Green Fuels Forecast