Just what, you may ask, is a gribble? It’s a tiny marine isopod, and it eats wood. For centuries, they destroyed wooden ships. Today, they continue to munch away on docks and piers. Unlike creatures such as termites, however, gribbles have no helpful microbes in their digestive system to help them digest wood – they themselves possess the enzymes necessary for converting it to sugar. British researchers are now suggesting that what works for the gribbles could also work for converting wood waste and straw into liquid biofuels…
Tags: Biofuel,
Research,
Waste,
Wood
Related Articles:
- Cleaner, cheaper fuel from orange peels and newspaper
- Cellulose ethanol commercial demo plant for Montana
- Cheaper, more fuel-efficient tires? Wooden it be good
- New bones from old wood
- Thermal vest keeps troops cool in the heat of battle
- First commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S.