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Panda Poop May Hold Key to Major Breakthrough in Biofuels
Until recently, the production of biofuels was thought to require specific types of easily compostable organic matter, like from corn and sugar cane, but soon a wider variety of raw plant material could be used as well -- thanks to the stuff in panda poop. Since a panda's diet is composed almost entirely of bamboo stalks, they've developed digestive systems rich in particularly potent bacterial flora to help break down that tough, fibrous cellulose. If those bacteria could be harvested, scientists say that more common organic material, such as grass, wood chips and crop waste, could be used to produce cheaper biofuels.
"Who would have guessed that 'panda poop' might help solve one of the major hurdles to producing biofuels, which is optimizing the breakdown of the raw plant materials used to make the fuels?" said study co-author Ashli Brown, Ph.D. "We hope our research will help expand the use of biofuels in the future and help cut dependency on foreign oil. We also hope it will reinforce the importance of wildlife conservation."
In other words, pandas could soon become like the proverbial 'goose that lays the golden eggs' -- with just a few key differences, of course.
It's always a good idea to look to nature to see how it solved problems, such as extracting energy from a recalcitrant,high cellulose substrate like bamboo. Nope, it's not going to save the planet, but there is energy to be had in such biological materials, and if this helps us to extract it more effectively, so much the better.
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