Global Warming

At the end of September the United Nations released their six-year update on the state of the climate. They stated in this update the they are 95% sure that global warming is due to human factors. They state many of the problems in their findings. Claiming that the carbon dioxide levels are at the highest they've been in the past 800,000 years. This is a very startling fact, but it makes sense. With the increased use of fossil fuels and many of the other things that put carbon dioxide into the air, it is no wonder the levels are so high. The United Nations also said that see levels are predicted to rise at a faster rate than over the past 40 years. It could rise anywhere from ten to thirty inches. This rising of the sea level could affect many coastal cities. The rising of sea level is no doubt because of the melting of the greenland and arctic ice shelfs and glaciers. All signs point to humans being the ones who have caused these problems. The only solutions would be to stop putting so many greenhouse gases into the air and let the earth fix itself. Unless there was a way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere at a large scale. That could be a great area of research.

Energy in the News

             Korean researchers have started to modify microorganisms to produce gasoline. The research team modified E. Coli to convert the glucose that they are fed into gasoline. So far 1 liter of the modifed E. Coli can produce 580 milligrams of gasoline per hour. The major component in gasoline are hydrocarbons called alkanes. These are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms, and gasoline has a short alkane chain while diesel has a longer chain. There has been earlier success in creating diesel fuel from E. Coli, but never gasoline. One of the big things with this development is that the product is gasoline and requires no extra steps to convert it into gasoline. Its amazing how they are able to just put in glucose and have gasoline come out. The E. Colie have enzymes that convert the glucose sugars into fatty acids which are then converted into alkane hydro carbons. So far the small amount of gasoline produced is not very practical. The korean research team’s next goal is to produce three grams of gasoline per liter per hour. This breakthrough in the study of modifying microorganism to produce gasoline will serve as a basis for more research regarding microorganisms producing fuel. In the near future the E. Coli will be able to produce more gasoline per liter. This advancement will make gasoline an easily renewed resource. If we are still using gasoline in the future  this will make the price of it very cheap because the gasoline will basically be the price of sugar. http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/4237/20130930/e-coli-bacteria-used-create-gasoline.htm