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MIT Engineers are Converting
Waste Gas Emissions into Liquid Fuel
MIT researchers have found a way to convert exhaust
emissions to oil using bacteria.
Another great innovation that will protect our environment. These MIT
engineers are converting waste gas emissions back to oil.
The feat of turning waste gas into liquid fuel has been successfully
trialled in a test plant in China. It could open more opportunities in
turning emissions of power stations, steel mills and garbage dumps into
liquid fuels, all thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
researchers.
This innovation relies on bacteria that convert the waste gases into acetic
acid, or popularly called as vinegar, then an engineered yeast to produce
an oil. A pilot test ran in Shanghai in September of 2015, with only 1
to 2 liters in the laboratory. It will be different story now if it is moved
upscale to a thousand liters in the demonstration plant which is set to be
constructed in Belgium and in China come 2017.
The idea sprouted from a post-doctoral project funded by the US Energy
Department. This will forward low-cost gases, and more importantly, it
came from emissions that are supposedly waste.
20
Oil & Gas Leaders • June 2017