Coal that has microexplosions at the surface likely becomes Ch4 plus other volatile hydrocarbons

right now there are situ methods of producing hydrocarbon from coal

I think bacteria could produce active nitrogen compounds to nitrify glycerine creating bacteria with nitroglycerine

a film of these would detonate at the microstructure of the coal releasing ch4 plus making liquid hydrocarbons

if the bacteria are oil eating bacteria with a preference for a particular hydrocarbon then the bacteria just fizz the coal to make oil which people then use

It is a bacteria that turns coal which has hundreds of years of reserves to oil

It appears that genes that modulate the nitrate NO3- are published HCl is a stomach acid Hcl + No3 ion might make Hno3

Sulfur bacteria make sulfuric acid One way of producing nitric acid is to react nitrate ion with sulfuric acid

Nitric acid reacts with carbohydrates or glycerine to make explosives

I could imagine the durable waxy cholesterol like hopanoids that certain bacteria make could go with creating stronger membranes to assist the reactions
-- beanangel, Sep 25 2009

different yet similar nitrogen effect genes among bacteria http://fungene.cme....p?pubmedID=18616585
[beanangel, Sep 28 2009]

These bacteria make sulfuric acid when they eat sulfur; numerous coals have sulfur http://en.wikipedia...ple_sulfur_bacteria
then the sulfuric acid from the bacteria could react with the Nitrate ion from the nitrifying bacteria to produce nitric acid near glycerine which creates nitroglycerine [beanangel, Sep 28 2009]

to be honest that seems a real stretch. I'll withhold my vote to see if anyone knows of any examples of self-emolating bacteria that can detonate themselves for the betterment of the species. Anyone?
-- WcW, Sep 25 2009


Sorry to be pedantic:

The layout of this idea is another argument for having a <sub> tag here.

"Bacteria" is a plural. The singular is "bacteriUM".

If this worked, i think it would probably just explode.
-- nineteenthly, Sep 25 2009


The bacteria are going to need to live in some sort of film of slime..... NG is very soluble, and won't explode in solution.

Bacterial digestion of coal to produce hydrocarbons may be possible ..... but an organism that can metabolise pure carbon is going to have some odd properties. The thermophillic bacteria that inhabit deep-sea vents might be a starting point.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 25 2009


Bun just for the encouragement to keep thinking.

One of these days we're going to see on some science news headline some remarkable discovery that'll change the world, and inside the article some subtle references to beans and angels directed at us, and people will start to remember that Einstein had a permanent bad hair day.
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 25 2009


you are a hopeless romantic.
-- WcW, Sep 26 2009


I think humanity is rapidly passing the single person genius level. To etch into the hard dark missed recesses of the unknown, mobs of genii will be needed.
-- wjt, Sep 26 2009


// mobs of genii will be needed //

And just when you need us, here we are ....
-- 8th of 7, Sep 26 2009


// I think humanity is rapidly passing the single person genius level //

I don't think that's happening at all. I think people are painting themselves into intellectual corners and finding it hard to think originally, but they still do so and it's more a problem with education. Then again, people probably thought the same sort of thing at various points throughout history.
-- nineteenthly, Sep 26 2009


(marked-for-tagline)

"having been done"
-- normzone, Sep 26 2009


well there are a number of annual plants that scatter seed You can even hear some as they fling their seeds unicyte slime molds gather together to make a structure that dries to transport ariel spores I think a bacterial biofilm with areas that dry out to transform nutrients is possible A fungi that does this would be rather similar to mobile slime molds alive now

A reason to support the technology with a mere few hundreds of K USD: As bizarre as this may seem the 3 or 4 trillion USD gulf war was sufficient to give every Israeli a new country, with a mansion per three persons, plus 35 to 70k USD annually from a trust fund

7.4 million Israelis a million million is a trillion so thats 2.3 trillion to get the 300K CDN canadian citizenships Canada was promoting

Note the Israelis keep the money they just have to place it at Canadian assets possibly posh REITs that give them million USD mansions per 3 persons then 1.7 trillion amongst the 7.4 million Israelis is a trust fund of near 230K each; near 700K per group of three persons thus a group of three persons if they could get 10 pt would have 70K per year or 35k if they were more conservative plus opulent housing from their REIT

my theory is that part of that war was about oil; thus a cheap way to make oil from coal has value

Cheap oil also has value as I read a thing at yahoo that said "100 million face famine" as a result of oil driven food fluctuations

anyway a pleasant way to begin would be to have a growth medium that detected nitrification compounds visually then have a computer optically analyze thousands or millions of wild bacteria to find genes that make Hno3 or other nitrifying chemicals There are sulfur bacteria that make sulfuric acid from sulfur which is sometimes near coal
-- beanangel, Sep 28 2009


Beanangel, do you have a photographic memory?
-- dentworth, Sep 28 2009


A step wider. A designed culture of genetically engineered species from plants to bacteria that make coal their home(medium) and give us oil.
-- wjt, Sep 29 2009



random, halfbakery