This Genetically Modified E. Coli Poops Out Diesel Fuel

Breaking urgent amazing news from the world of science and research: Biologists have figured out a way to genetically modify the E. coli bacteria so that it converts sugar into a synthetic biofuel. The BBC says the resultant substance is "almost identical to diesel." Everybody all at once now: WOW! Energy crisis averted, amirite?

No, I am wrong. The just-announced breakthrough is not only a little misleading, it's also not a breakthrough at all. Scientists have been producing diesel-pooping bacteria for over five years.

This particular quest for so-called "renewable petroleum" started back in 2007 in a garage near San Francisco. (It's always the garages near San Francisco, isn't it?) Biochemist Stephen del Cardayre and his buddies started fiddling with genetic engineering and strains of E. coli. Pulling in "genes from nature" del Caradayre says that he pieced together a method through which the bacteria would produce the diesel-like fuel as waste, rather than fat which is the normal by-product. They created a startup now known as LS9 to keep the project going.

Six months after LS9 first popped up in the press, MIT Technology Review picked up the story and pointed out a fairly glaring problem. Sure, the fuel-producing product did work. You could feed sugar to the bacteria, and the bacteria would produce a diesel-like oil. However, to meet the world's needs, it was going to take an unfeasible amount of sugar and a lot of bacteria.

The latest bit of diesel-pooping research does not come from LS9, but the results aren't much different. Professor John Love, the lead author on a paper just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says it takes 100 liters worth of the E. coli bacteria to make just one tablespoon of the diesel-like fuel. The positive is that "car manufacturers, consumers and fuel retailers wouldn't even notice the difference," says Love. "It would just become another part of the fuel production chain." Of course, the US uses 138 million gallons of diesel fuel every day, so putting any meaningful dent into our consumption is simply impossible at that production ratio.

Still, developing biofuels remains something of a pet project for oil companies, which is probably why Shell bankrolled Love's research. Meanwhile, LS9 is working hard to get in on the ground floor of a new industry. But a lot of people are trying. This diesel-pooping bacteria is one approach — one very headline-friendly approach — out of hundreds, if not thousands, of ideas for renewable fuel sources. Don't forget that it takes energy to produce bacteria, its food, and keep the labs running.

It remains to be seen which will actually prove to be viable. Geraint Evans, a biofuel consultant at the National Non-Food Crops Centre (now known simply as the NNFCC), said it well when he told BBC News, "It's not a magic bullet—but it is another tool in the toolbox."