Mushrooms give helping hand

[Wobs]

Don't know if this has been mentioned before but.....
Making biodesiel with the aid of mushrooms:

"Fungi have really become the go-to organisms in biotechnology circles: we've seen them used as a form of insulation and have seen several potential applications for biofuel production. Notch yet another one to the latter category: a team of scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have discovered a better way to make biodiesel using a fungus-derived enzyme.

To make biodiesel, methanol is typically mixed with a blend of lye and vegetable oil and heated for several hours. The main downside to this process is the length of the heating process — which generates a lot of wasted energy. Fortunately, the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae possesses large amounts of a key enzyme — lipase — which can link the methanol to the oils without the need for extra heating. The scientists just need to pass oil and methanol through a bed of pellet-sized amounts of the fungi to produce the biodiesel. Who says biofuel production can't be both simple and green?"

Using 'Shrooms to Grow Biodiesel : TreeHugger

[forfismum]

Nice idea that Wobs and has potential

Just two little probs to be dealt with
1 You will need a very long crowbar to lever Spadlet away from the mushrooms ,she needs them for her soup.

2 Moulds and fungal growths seem to be an emerging problem with biodiesel and other bioduels.Not fully up to steam on the problem yet but it seems that moulds can live on bio in the storage tanks and get into filters and injector systems and cause more trouble than a bag of cats.

[Wobs]

Thanks for that. Food for thought as they say.

Beloved has been trying to grow mushrooms using toilet roll. Not that successful, but what we have got was very good.