BACTERIA FLATULENCE = NEW ENERGY

Imagine a gazillion bacteria farting. That’s what the world could someday use for fuel in its gas stoves and heaters. Well, it's a thought.

Only the abstract of the article is currently available on the web.

A collaborator with Professor Petsch (whose research is described below) has posted more information on the work at Subsurface Methanogenesis Microbes from the Antrim Shale

Lecture notes with further explication of the general concept are at Biomethanogenesis: Principles

A related process of anaerobic bacterial digestion is the basis of biogas production from animal waste. The Department of Energy explains it at How Anaerobic Digestion (Methane Recovery) Works

The Antrim and other shales are rich in natural gas resources. (click to enlarge)

Natural Gas Formation By Bacteria Linked To Climate Change And Renewable Energy
January 26, 2008 (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, via Science Daily)

WHO
Steven Petsch, geoscientist, University of Massachusetts Amherst (w/Anna Martini, professor of geology, Amherst College; Michael Formolo, post-doctoral researcher, UMass-Amherst; Jeffrey Salacup, undergraduate, UMass-Amherst); Klaus Nüsslein, microbiology department, Umass-Amherst;

WHAT
Studying the Antrim Shale formation in Michigan, Dr. Petsch reports in A new model linking atmospheric methane sources to Pleistocene glaciation via methanogenesis in sedimentary basins he discovered proof that natural gas trapped there had been generated by bacteria deep in rocks under ice sheets during the ice ages. There is some thought that such anaerobic bacteria can be colonized to create “renewable” supplies of natural gas.

WHEN
- The evidence suggests bacterial flatulence generated trillions of cubic feet of natural gas not over millions of years, as had been previously thought, but in tens of thousands of years.
- The Petsch study was published in the February 2008 issue of Geology.

Bacterial digestion will have to be added to the list. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- The study also explains why there is evidence of increased levels of methane gas in the atmosphere between the ice ages. The bacterial gases had been trapped by ice sheets and when they melted, the gases were released.
- Funding from National Science Foundation and the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America.

WHY
- The Antrim Shale is a bowl under northern Michigan. During most of geologic history it contained water too salty to support bacterial life. In times when ice sheets overlaid it, glacial meltwater was pushed into it, diluting it. Bacteria grew, digested available carbon in the rock and generated gas.
- Petsch was able to chemically identify the water as different than rainwater and Nüsslein chemically identified the bacterial origin of the gas.

The scientists hypothesize that relatives of the anaerobic bacteria that produce biogas from animal waste could be colonized to produce gas in deep rock under great pressure. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Petsch: “Bacteria digested the carbon in the rocks and made large amounts of natural gas in a relatively short time, tens of thousands of years instead of millions…This suggests that it may be possible to seed carbon-rich environments with bacteria to create natural gas reservoirs.”
- Petsch: “When the ice sheets retreated, it was like uncapping a soda bottle…Natural gas, which is mostly methane, was released from the shale into the atmosphere.”
- Petsch: “Climate scientists haven’t focused on the role that geologic sources of methane play in global warming.”