Is it possible to fuel the world from grass clippings?

Thanks to you buds for suggesting a video like this to me! I was not able to get to a mass spectrometer to analyze the pond scum better, but hopefully I can get to one soon! The microbes make methane because they have no oxygen. They can only get oxygen by getting rid of hydrogen. (in water, sugar, etc.)

Links:

There are 34,000 golf courses in the world, 30 hectares of grass on each:

Amount of cereals production:

Human Urbanization:

Number of homes in the world:

Total energy from sun and total energy we’re using:

Woodpower:

Ethanol:

Return on energy:

5000 gigatons of methane in ocean:

What is that oily sheen on the marsh?

Methane/Octane enthalpies

Entropy of life:

[markbell]

In my per-retirement days working for the nasty Big-Oil (Chevron) I did research on how natural gas is formed, particularly its formation from bacterial degradation of organic matter. Methane from bacteria called methanogens is uniquely distinguished from methane formed during oil generation (thermogenic) by there stable isotopic signature. Carbon has two stable isotopes called carbon-12 and carbon-13 and when methanogens form methane they preferentially use carbon-12. They don’t know they are doing this (I don’t think, although I never asked one), it is just that the carbon-12 bonds are a bit easier to break than carbon-13 and this difference is large at lower surface temperature that the methanogens are working at and this difference decrease as the temperature increases (i.e. at greater depths). So methane produced by methanogens have a measurably higher concentration carbon-12, this is determined by stable isotope mass spectrometry. BUT, of interest to this video is that we also found ethane, propane, butane and pentane that also exhibited higher concentrations of carbon-12. So did some of these higher hydrocarbon gases come from some type of bacteria (e.g. ethanogen, propanogen, . . . )? I would say we never proved this but is very suggestive. Can a bacteria be isolated that produces ethane or propane? If they are there you might figure a clever microbiologist would have found them, but I don’t known.
Cheers, Mark
PS
*THINK* ing *ABOUT* the end of you video *IT* seems you left something out.

[megacodnoob]

Cody should promote your channel again, because you make great content! You deserve more subs than this!

[quagmier]

Great video Arthur. I am so glad that your back is doing better. I have been fascinated by this subject for a long time now. It seems that we just throw so much stuff away that could be used for better purposes. One thing to point out is that once a landfill has reached full capacity and it is covered over with dirt they very often have to install a vent pipe and burn off the methane that is produced by the decomposition. I am not sure if any landfills actually try to capture and utilize it but it is produced in great quantity and the process could be refined to get a better return per ton of organics. We just burn so much more gas and coal because it is easy to get by the ton so people have not become desperate enough to get energy in more environmentally responsible ways. Thank you for making such great content and have a great day.

[Lukegear]

Oh my :o
I am so looking forward to updates on this

[carlramirez]

I always assumed that the iridescent pond scum was just petrochemical pollution that got concentrated by wind and water current. Thanks for teaching me.

[WKLN]

The EROI of corn ethanol is only bad if you're making DDG byproduct. If the DG is wet and used locally, the energy is cut in 1/2.

[finndriver]

Wait, why in space is high-octane stuff exciting?
Surely one might prefer a high-methane experience?

[KylesWildWorld]

great topic! i wonder if we could use that same bacteria or a similar one such as nitrifying bacteria to turn human and animal waste into a usable fuel? also if cow waste produces high amounts of methane would there be a chance that their gut bacteria contains a similar bacteria?

[kamalibrathwaite]

How much Calories does a gram of grass contains?

[Dollapfin]

Look into methanol from grass. It's less energy dense but uses a lot less energy to produce.

[Octojen]

I've seen this - i assumed it was various oils/waxes made in the grass while it was growing, for water retaining reasons, and then as it rotted, it was freed from the plant.