The Journal of Young Investigators: An Undergraduate, Peer-Reviewed Science Journal

13 April 2005 - The digestive tracts of termites may provide a solution to the ongoing scientific pursuit of pollution-free energy, according to Nobel laureate Steven Chu. At the 2005 Institute of Physics conference at Warwick University, UK this week, Chu spoke of the urgent need to find an environmentally friendly form of fuel to abate the current reliance on polluting fossil fuels.

Chu explained, in his ardent speech to an audience made up of some of the world’s greatest minds, how his research holds the potential for producing ethanol, a cheap and environmentally friendly fuel, from cellulose. He emphasized that his research is only one step forward in a potentially long struggle for a cleaner, sustainably-fueled future, however. He encouraged others to lead by example as he has, and join the effort which “may already be too late.”

Chu received a Nobel Prize for Physics with a colleague in 1997, but has since left his richly-funded position at Stanford University to become Director of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories. Since the move he has been studying how termites digest cellulose (plant matter) and convert it into ethanol, a versatile and popular fuel.
He has been slowly persuading his new colleagues, including 56 members of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, to realize the danger of not preparing for the inevitable shift away from fossil fuels, and to change the focus of their research.

Ethanol is currently made chiefly from corn, grown by farmers receiving US subsidy. But the practice isn’t carbon-neutral, meaning that it leads to the release of more carbon into the atmosphere in the form of CO2 than it takes out when the plants are growing. “From the point of view of the environment,” explains Chu, “it would be better if we just burnt oil.”

“But carbon-neutral energy sources are achievable,” Chu adds. In contrast to our current corn refining process, termites can produce ethanol with much greater efficiency, having had a billion years to perfect the process. Moreover, their bodies can digest cellulose in many forms, and aren’t limited only to the grain produced by the corn plant. “The majority of all plant matter is cellulose – a solid, low-grade fuel about as futuristic as burning wood,” says Chu. “If scientists can convert cellulose into liquid fuels like ethanol, the world’s energy supply and storage problems could both be solved at a stroke.”

By exploiting this ability, Chu says, we can use biology as a solution to a pressing world problem.

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