Feb 8, 2008 5:17 pm US/Eastern
Trash-Converting Microb Discovered In Mass.
Q Microb Holds Promise For Cleaner Energy Alerternative
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
A lab next to UMass Amherst is creating a form of energy that promises to be cleaner and cheaper than corn ethanol and much cleaner and cheaper than diesel or gasoline.
Dr. Susan Leschine, a UMass Amherst microbiology professor, has discovered a microbe that holds big implications for the future.
Dr. Leschine says the bacterium unearthed by a research assistant was renamed the Q Microbe for Quabbin.
The Q Microb was found in soil next to the Quabbin Resevoir.
The microbe is able to take waste material and convert it into ethanol.
About half of all municipal waste is paper.
"And the Q Microbe loves paper," Leschine said. "It converts paper to ethanol."
The Q Microbe also converts woody waste and a variety of plant materials into cellulosic ethanol, which promises to be cleaner and cheaper than corn ethanol much and cleaner and cheaper than diesel or gasoline.
Jef Sharp is CEO of Sun Ethanol in Amherst and Dr. Leschine is the company's chief scientist.
Together, they have attracted millions in backing from Vera-Sun Energy.
Just last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a grant that will help them build a biorefinery.
Other companies have similar plans.
"With the lead role Massachusetts has now, they could easily turn into the Texas of biofuels," said Sharp
"I think that we are positioned perfectly to become leaders in biofuels production," said Leschine.
Gov. Deval Patrick favors a bill to grow clean fuels industry in Massachusetts. His administration says cellulosic ethanol could create 3,000 new jobs and pump $320 million into the state's economy.
The promising microscopic discovery comes as a recently released study in Science Magazine claimed that the widespread use of ethanol instead of gasoline could actually increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Researchers say past studies showing the benefits of using ethanol to combat climate change didn't take into account almost certain changes in land use.
The study says farmers under economic pressure to produce biofuels will increasingly plow up more land and release much of the carbon that would have been stored in plants and soils.
And they say globally, more grasslands and forests will be converted to growing crops to replace grains lost when U.S. farmers convert land to biofuels.
Still, a group representing ethanol producers says the researchers' view of land-use changes is "simplistic" and that the study "fails to put the issue in context."
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