Fossil Free: Microbe Helps Convert Solar Power to Liquid Fuel
"By pairing biology and photovoltaics, a new "electrofuel" system could build alternative fuels"
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Xholon
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Title: Fossil Free: Microbe Helps Convert Solar Power to Liquid Fuel
Description: "By pairing biology and photovoltaics, a new "electrofuel" system could build alternative fuels"
Url: http://www.scientificamerican.com/author.cfm?id=1013
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My Notes
--------
**March 30, 2012**
A story by David Biello at the Scientific American site reports on an article in Science magazine. The abstract for the Science article, "Integrated Electromicrobial Conversion of CO2 to Higher Alcohols", is at::
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6076/1596.abstract
]]></Notes>
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<!-- domain objects -->
<PhysicalSystem/>
<Sun/>
<Microbe>
<SoilMicrobe> <!-- naturally occurring -->
<RalstoniaEutropha/>
</SoilMicrobe>
<GeneticallyEngineeredMicrobe>
<RalstoniaEutrophaGEM/> <!-- genetically engineered from Ralstonia eutropha -->
</GeneticallyEngineeredMicrobe>
</Microbe>
<Photosynthesis/> <!-- the natural process that accomplishes the same thing as the bioreactor, but less efficiently -->
<HybridBioelectricSystem/>
<Bioreactor/> <!-- "integrated electro-microbial bioreactor" -->
<Electrode/>
<Water/>
<Sunlight/>
<SolarPanel/>
<Electricity/>
<ElectricityStorage/>
<CarbonDioxide/> <!-- CO2 -->
<Formate/> <!-- "an energy source for the microbe, made from carbon dioxide" -->
<LiquidFuel> <!-- transportation fuel -->
<Gasoline/>
<Butanol/> <!-- "simplest real fuel", butyl alcohol, C4H9OH (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butanol) -->
</LiquidFuel>
<!-- quantities -->
<EnergyDensity/> <!-- what are the units of this ? -->
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<Sun/>
<Sunlight/>
<SolarPanel/>
<Electricity/>
<Bioreactor>
<!-- starting ingredients -->
<Water/>
<CarbonDioxide/>
<Electrode/> <!-- receives the electricity, that "starts a chemical reaction that uses the CO2 to make formate" -->
<!-- intermediate products -->
<Formate/>
<RalstoniaEutrophaGEM/> <!-- converts formate to butanol (fuel) and carbon dioxide -->
<!-- result products -->
<Butanol/>
<CarbonDioxide/>
</Bioreactor>
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