Not really but close. This article from the Environmental News Network says that scientists were able to create a strain of E. coli “that generates alcohol with five carbon atoms per molecule instead of the regular two or three.” A kind of alcohol that is 2 to 3 times more efficient than ethanol as biofuel. That’s welcome news for the hungry people of corn exporting nations.
Escherichia coli or E. coli is a bacteria that inhabits the human digestive tract and anywhere human waste are deposited, intentionally or not. Scientists say that the successful experiment will open new doors in polymers and the medical field but we are content with turning poop into energy for the moment. Now, let’s have that long chain alcohol. 
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Wow, that’s a very interesting bit of news from the science world. Thanks for sharing the story
I hope this strain of E coli is safe will it kill us if it gets in to the food supply?
Save Gass last blog post..Water for gas scam?
This is my second site to visit from Entrecard…great blog!
Have a great day!
Sher :0)
Shers last blog post..Russia-Ukraine Gas Feud Update
This made me laugh lol. I had to stumble it. Great read!
yanjiarens last blog post..Another Green Funny: Swedish crematorium recycles heat from dead bodies!
cool article. (not the poop of course
) but it’s nice to know that there are new ways to get energy. How about the poop of animals?
I can think of a number of dairies where that would come in handy…
Ravyns last blog post..What Can’t You Do?
Your post title is funny. I was expecting something funny here.
Atnizs last blog post..Read More and Write Less
Yay! So I can finally put my dogs’ poop to good use. I always knew that those piles in the backyard would come in handy one day.
It’s an alternative energy source we’ll never run out of, isn’t it? One of the other sources that I think has a lot of potential is – used coffee grounds! A group of scientists in the Southwest have extracted usable automobile fuel from used coffee grounds.
chameleons last blog post..The Coffee@eHow Roundup
I know this will sound very odd to many readers especially younger ones. But, my husband hails from a family of 11 and they were sharecroppers. They had a wonderful life but they had to be very efficient.
In the very rough and hardest times in my in laws marriage before my husband they traveled to other places to pick cotton and such.
When these years hit they lived in wee huts and my MIL would collect old cow patties to burn. that was the only fuel they could afford.
So if they could do it almost 80 years ago. Why in the world aren’t we applying this in a more modern way in today’s time.
Great post!!
I wonder if we would still be able to harvest methane from such (ahem…) product. If so, we could then have two fuel sources created by one substance. That would be interesting.
so will the ethanol companies try to bury this technology like big oil does with alternative fuels?
@ choopixie
Thanks for dropping by too.
@ SaveGas
E. Coli itself is not safe, so it is safe to assume we can get sick from the new strail too. I think that production of alcohol with the new bacteria will be done in strictly-regulated envrionments, not in backyard stills.
@ Sher
Glad to have you here.
@ yanjiaren
Thanks for the stumble, much appreciated.
@ zplits
It’s actually the bacteria found in the human digestive tract, not the poop itself. Animal waste has been used as an energy source for millenia.
@ Ravyn
Dairies where the cows are enclosed? There’s actually an existing technology for that, production of methane gas from animal wastes. The methane can then be used as fuel for gas engines hooked to an electrical system. If those dairies aren’t using this technology yet, maybe it’s about time they’re throwing away something that could help keep their electric bills down and help the environemtn as well.
@ Atniz
:chuckle:
Unfortunately, when it comes to the environment and our only home, we can’t afford not to take issues like reliance on fossil fuels seriously.
@ Staci
The sad thing about dog poop is, like those of humans, they often carry a lot of unfriendly bacterias and parasites.
@ chameleon
It’s unfortunate that I choose to title the article that way. It’s not actually the poop itself but the E. Coli bacteria found in it (human waste). The new strain will be used to convert waste organic material (sustainable and potentially limitless) into alcohol.
@ Shinade
True and it is still quite common in certain parts of the world like Africa and Asia. A more modern approach will be to take all those human and animal wastes from cities and turn them into methane gas (an old but relatively unknown technology). The methane gas can be used to power electric generators (instead of coal or bunker fuel) and the by product (organic fertilizer) could be use to enrich garden and farm soil without killing it in the long run. 2 birds with 1 stone.
@ Frank Schulte-Ladbeck
We could harvest methane from our product but that would be it. Unless we find a way to burn the end product. The way I understand this E. Coli strain thingy is that the bacteria will be set loose oncarbohydrate or sugar-rich materials like bagasse (waste sugar cane stalks)to turn the sugar into alcohol with 5 carbon atoms. A type of alcohol that is more energy-effecient than the common 3 carbon one.
@ derl
That’s the big question. It’s not only the ethanol companies but also those producing the raw materials for ethanol, such as corn and sugarcane.
For instance, if the E. Coli strain will be used to ferment sugarcane juice into ethanol, it means less raw material will be needed to produce the same amount of energy.
So there will be a drop in the need for Brazilian sugarcane. Which is a good thing, of course, since they are enroaching on the Amazon forest to open up more areas for sugar cane plantations as they are positioning themselves as the primary exporter of ethanol for biofuel.
And Terracycle started a growing empire based on re-use of worm poop. We live in a world that is run so inefficiently that in the next century fortunes will be made based on increasing the efficiency of all kinds of products and processes.
David – green planets last blog post..Deny, Deny, Deny – But Never Look at the Big Picture
True, we’ll have little resources left so we have to sift through our wastes for raw materials. Landfills are money waiting to be dug up.
I know its a little old now , but still a great read. Performance of biogas plants can be greatly improved if we start engineering at the bacteria level rather than focusing on the process side of things all the time.