Get your pooper-scoopers ready, because scientists in New Orleans are tapping into the products of some zoo animals’ backsides to move forward in green energy.
The New Orleans CityBusiness reports that researchers at Tulane University are trying to produce butanol from the waste of animals from the zoo:
A project to identify and genetically engineer bacteria to create butanol has been under way at a Tulane lab for just more than a year. The work is funded in part through a grant the U.S. Department of Energy awarded to the coalition of six Louisiana universities that comprise the Clean Power and Energy Research Consortium.
“We are on the cutting edge here,” said W.T. Godbey, a Tulane assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering who is one of the project’s investigators.
Once the researchers determine the best bacteria for producing biobutanol, they intend to genetically modify them to produce higher yields of the chemical and to digest cellulose so biomass sources that might have otherwise wound up in landfills can be used to produce fuel…
To date, the Tulane researchers have identified more than a dozen different strains of bacteria capable of catalyzing the butanol fermentation process. The bacteria have been obtained from feces collected from plant-eating animals at the Audubon Zoo.
“It sounds — and is — humorous, the image of scientists running around the backside of a giraffe or hippo,” [Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute] said, “but these animals evolved an efficient way of consuming cellulose long before we thought about it.”
The scientists say butanol contains significantly more energy per volume than ethanol, blends more readily with gasoline and can be distributed through existing pipelines.
Guardian Energy LLC, headquartered in Shakopee, Minnesota recently entered into an agreement to purchase the 100-million gallon plant acquired by 
Two E85 and biodiesel promotions will be held in Austin, Minnesota next week. E85 will be sold for 85 cents off per gallon and B5 will be sold for 20 cents off per gallon at both events.
Bioengineering firm 
The campaign is a partnership between leading corn-producing states, the 
A deal that would have provided biodiesel to a Hawaiian Electric Co. plant has been dealt a tough blow that in all intents and purposes kills the project.
When the contract was later amended to have Imperium import biodiesel from a West Coast refinery, HECO also sought a terminaling and trucking agreement with Aloha Petroleum to transport the imported biodiesel to its generating plant. That additional contract would have incurred additional costs that HECO would have passed on to its customers.
A bill that would extend the biodiesel tax incentive by five years, as well as changing the way the program is administered, has been introduced.
“Domestic production and use of biodiesel is consistent with an energy policy that values the displacement of petroleum with low-carbon, renewable fuels. This legislation will provide certainty to biodiesel producers and improve the form and function of the biodiesel tax incentive. We strongly support this proposal and commend Senator Cantwell and Senator Grassley for introducing this forward thinking legislation,” said NBB CEO Joe Jobe.
