Is energy 'miracle' finally taking off?

From WorldNetDaily

Pioneer: 'This would be the greatest sea change in history for our country'

An F/A-18F Super Hornet from the Diamondbacks of Strike Fighter Squadron 102 launches off the aircraft carrier USS George Washington. The Navy hopes to augment its fuel supply for Super Hornets with renewable biofuel and has dubbed its upcoming Earth Day test flight "The Green Hornet." (Navy photo / Marcos Vazquez)

By Joe Kovacs Posted: January 14, 2010 ~ 8:40 pm Eastern © 2010 WorldNetDaily A project trumpeted as a potential solution to America's energy needs is on the verge of taking off with the U.S. military, but government bureaucracy is causing frustrating delays and a chokehold on funding, raising out-of-pocket expenses for the company spearheading the technology. Bell Bio-Energy of Tifton, Ga., has developed a groundbreaking process that rapidly converts virtually anything that grows out of the Earth into all sorts of hydrocarbon fuel – from gasoline and diesel, to home heating oil and jet fuel for fighter aircraft such as the Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornets. "If we can produce this fuel [on a mass scale], this would be the greatest sea change in history for our country," declares J.C. Bell, the project's pioneer. His method involves genetic manipulation to change naturally occurring bacteria, so they eat and consume biomass more quickly and efficiently, breaking down waste material from crops into usable energy. "There's certainly nothing from a basic science point of view that's wrong with the idea," said Dr. Charles Krauter, a soil and water professor California State University at Fresno familiar with Bell's technique. "Obviously the process worked. He's just doing it in an artificial enviroment and speeding it up. They're not doing anything that natural microbes haven't been doing for 100 million years." Since WND first reported on the project in 2008, Bell has sought the federal government's help in expanding the process on a huge scale. Last year, he teamed up with the U.S. Army for a demonstration plant at Fort Stewart in Georgia, and said results were a complete success. "We've proven it. There's nothing else left to prove," he said. "Now all we have to do is build bigger plants." With that in mind, the next target is a joint project with the U.S. Navy that could mean an enhanced supply of jet fuel for America's F/A-18 Super Hornets, created from the non-edible residue of California's fruits, nuts and vegetables. "We're looking at putting a full-scale production facility in the San Joaquin Valley," Bell said. The valley, located in the heart of the Golden State, is considered one of the most fertile sections of the U.S. "What they produce is mile after mile of vineyards for wine, grapes and grape juice," said Bell, "and mile after mile of almond groves and pistachio and pecan groves. All of those things have to be trimmed every year. That's the biomass waste they're producing every year." READ FULL STORY >