Daily Science Dose

Ok, that is a bit misleading, I admit, but scientists have discovered a fungus in South American that produces octane and other hydrocarbons that are also found in petroleum.

Gary Strobel, a plant pathologist at Montana State University, happened upon a fungus growing on an Ulmo tree in Patagonia. When he and other researchers grew the fungus in their lab, they found that the fungus “exhaled” the same hydrocarbons that are found in diesel fuel.

From Science:

After discovering the new fungus wedged between cells in a stem from an Ulmo tree (Eucryphia cordifolia), Strobel and colleagues cultured the organism, collected the gaseous compounds it produced, and ran the compounds through a mass spectrometer to identify them. When he saw the printout, Strobel says, “every hair on my body stood up.” The list included octane, 1-octene, heptane, 2-methyl, and hexadecane–all common components of diesel fuels.

Although other microbes are known to make individual volatile hydrocarbons common in fuels, Strobel says none can match the synthetic repertoire of G. roseum, which makes a staggering 55 volatile hydrocarbons: “No one has ever observed anything like this with any microbe before.” He suspects that the fungus produces the hydrocarbon stew to inhibit other organisms from growing nearby.

So this little fungus gives off these noxious fumes in order to carve out a nook for itself to live, and this “perfume” just happens to be the same stuff that we humans rely on for transportation needs. My question is naturally, if we do find a way to harness this octane brew, will it still burn off into carbon dioxide?

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Seriously, this is pretty neat, that a small microorganism can produce gasoline and jet fuel, but how is producing renewable fuels that are burned and give off carbon dioxide among other gases help us in the long run? I agree that these fuel-producing microbes could alleviate “peak oil” and great loss we will all suffer when the eventual day comes when we run out of oil. But unless scientists can also find a microbe that can turn carbon dioxide into oh, let’s say, oxygen, I don’t see how these new biofuels, renewable or not, can help mitigate all that carbon dioxide we all have had a hand in pumping into Earth’s atmosphere.

However, to play the positive side of Lulu, this new fungus could provide impetus for people to preserve what little undisturbed wilderness we have left on this planet. If this little fungus was growing on a tree in Patagonia, who knows what is growing on trees in Canada’s arboreal forest, or the rainforess of Borneo. We could wipe out these trees and forests and other undisturbed ecosystems before we have the opportunity to stumble upon little hydrocarbon-producing fungi.

biofuels, gas, oil, octane, fuel, transportation, fungus, ulmo tree, South America, Patagonia, hyrdocarbons, forests, rainforest, Canadian arboreal, wilderness, carbon dioxide, oxygen