Xyleco, 60 Minutes, and a DoubleDragon

Smaug

punkin

I don't follow mate sorry. Must be a North American thing.

Smaug

Prime time Sunday evening national news program that has been on the air for decades.

punkin

I know what 60 mins is. I don't know what xyleco is, who is in the picture or what the fuck it's got to do with a double dragon.

Smaug

Xyleco’s Technology to Be Featured on 60 Minutes

Pic is the founder (older gentleman) and Lesley Stahl (news personality/journalist)

zymurgybob

Ok, so it's NOT about cajun music?

punkin

Seems to be something about a man who thinks he's the messiah from what i can tell by guessing and teasing information out piece by piece.

Smaug

@zymurgybob said: Ok, so it's NOT about cajun music?

Doh!

Kapea

@zymurgybob said: Ok, so it's NOT about cajun music?

Well, they were running a buckwheat mash...

Et toi!

TheMechWarrior

Nothing to see here, move along folks.
It's nothing more than the basics of fermentation as we all know it. The simple conversion of organic matter to alcohol.
Wow this is the most over the top spin I have ever seen.

Kapea

He did such an awesome job of stopping global warming the mid western US is setting record low temperatures!

Messiah indeed!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8-eiBqri0U

Fiji_Spirits

Have they actually made a reproducible affordable method of changing cellulose into sugars? I got some weeds and grass I wanna make some fuel out of.

Smaug

@Fiji_Spirits said: Have they actually made a reproducible affordable method of changing cellulose into sugars? I got some weeds and grass I wanna make some fuel out of.

Dunno in actuality.

Certainly the piece implies they've done something that has otherwise not been done yet.

TheMechWarrior

Looks like he's simply converted waste organic matter into alcohol.

It's not rocket science but they have created a great sense of wonder about what they've achieved, as if he's the next messiah or something.

Perhaps to him this appears to be miraculous, but as we know, what was once considered magic is now easily explainable by simple science.

grim

Efficient and cost effective cellulosic ethanol is a game changer for humanity.

The big focus now is non-enzymatic conversion - because of the cost, bottleneck and energy requirement of enzyme production.

Smaug

@grim that's really the issue.

Not that it hasn't been done. But is done cost effectively. Dunno?

Speaking for SD,,kinda thrilled for the exposure is all....

grim

I think there are two camps trying to crack it right now.

Those using novel chemical/physical reactions - like Xyleco (beyond acid and enzyme hydrolysis).

Those attempting to genetically modify bacteria/yeast to be able to hydrolyze and convert to ethanol as a single (or paired) package.

TheMechWarrior

I know of a company that are using genetically modified organisms for ethanol conversion and have done so for well over a decade. I guess until we know specifically what his ground breaking discovery is, it's only conjecture here as to what he has or hasn't done.

I feel it's a snake oil salesman campaign unless he's able to back his claims up with either a patent and some real verifiable science.