Clean Renewable Energy, Courtesy of Rainforest Tree Fungus

As scientists, researchers and engineers work to push past the age of fossil fuels and into a new era of clean renewable energy, promising breakthroughs are being made practically every week. An especially promising discovery has been made at Montana State University that may revolutionize biofuels, making them more efficient and cost-effective – and it all starts with a fungus that grows on trees in the Patagonia rainforest of northern Chile.

From BionomicFuel.com:

A scientific research breakthrough concerning biodiesel from trees as a biofuel source may be the answer the world has been waiting for. Dr. Gary Strobel, a researcher at Montana State University, discovered a new fungus that grows on specific trees in the Patagonia rain forest. This fungus is unique, and the only one found to have such a big effect on biofuel. It is called Gliocladium roseum, and the fungus only grows on the the Ulmo tree, and it only develops under certain very low oxygen conditions. This fungus makes different molecules that consist of carbon and hydrogen, almost identical to the molecules found in traditional diesel fuel. When grown in the lab this fungus is even more identical to diesel. This breakthrough for fungus biodiesel has made some of the researchers at Montana State University, and at other colleges and research institutes, think twice about the possible origin of fossil fuels under the ground. If large amounts of this fungi have been present in the past, it is possible that this contributed to the fossil fuel reserves.

Fungus biodiesel could meet the world’s energy needs in a way that doesn’t harm the environment or cause fuel costs to go through the roof. Dr. Strobel and other Montana State University scientists are continuing to research this fungus to determine the best ways to produce fungus biofuel and to increase the diesel molecules created by the fungus. Experts say that if it can be produced in a cost-effective manner, it may become the number one biofuel source in the world.

Fascinating – who would have thought we could get fuel from tree fungus? It’s amazing how our eyes are being opened to the possibilities around us. Fossil fuels are the way of the past – we’re blazing a trail into a cleaner, greener future and it couldn’t be more exciting.

Link [Bionomic Fuel]

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