Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Microbes at the Gas Pump

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20060412/Feature1.asp

(image courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

11 comments:

Noah S. said...

I thought this article was interesting. I like how they looked into all the different ways to make ethanol. Termite's stomachs were probably the weirdest. Maybe, in a couple years, they can find a faster and more efficient way to break down the biofuels. I hope that by the time I drive my car is running on either ethanol or electricity.

Brandon F said...

Some of the places they look in for ways to make ethanol are just weird. It makes sense why they look in cow guts and termite stomachs. Using the plant waste and turning it into fuel is definitely a good idea, considering how much waste we make.

Emery said...

Interesting...very interesting. It's pretty cool to see that maybe, in the future, our cars will run on corn and other plants. It's also very nice that, by 2012, we will be using all that ethanol. I think that a pure ethanol car would be nice when I get a car. Or maybe electricity, or, as a last resort, a gas-ethanol.

Psalm said...

This is kinda weird. Like Brandon said, "Some of the places they look in for ways to make ethanol are just weird." Brandon, I completely agree.

Ara said...

This article was mainly talking about the good things about ethanol, and where it can be found. Ethanol is also bad. The corn that scientists use for ethanol goes away quickly, and if we use up too much of the corn to produce this, we will run out of corn. It is good that they are looking other places to find ethanol.

Ara said...

Emery~ Go electric. I LIKE CORN

SoPHiE P. said...

I thought that this article was very interesting. If we could use ethanol instead of gas, it would be much better for the environment. I think that it is a very good idea.

Brandon B said...

That is really sad. AT-1 might die off and the other group might die off after. I do not get why AT-1 cannot give birth to any new orcas. Anyways, I liked the article and it was a fun read.

Brandon B said...

Sorry wrong article

Ben said...

It was an informative article, and also interesting. I never would have suspected that ethanol could be made from parts of plants. Also it was interesting that termites and cows can help make this helpful biofuel. I would like to know what kinds of microbes actually break down the parts and help make ethanol, not just where they live. I want to drive a fuel efficient car when i grow up.

dario said...

This article was pretty interesting. I never knew that there were so many places were we could get ethanol. I wonder what it is like to be inside a termite's stomach. I really think that ethanol will help us with global warming