Fracking, innovation, ethanol and Silly Putty

Fracking the cell, and drilling on the micro-scale

If you were thinking broadly of the energy industry, you might see some form of relationship between fracking technologies and horizontal drilling, and the work that Novozymes is doing. Although they go about their jobs at transformatively different scales, and one works on the fossil world and the other in the bio world, they share an important characteristic.

They both work off the principle that, in their target plant germ or geologic formation — there is more product that is there to be recovered than previous technology could extract. The key is to establish “bigger holes”, so to speak, to allow for excess gas, oil or starch to become accessible to the oil & gas explorer or the yeasts that do the work of fermenting starches into ethanol.

In both cases, accessing more product makes given resources more productive — and thereby have potential to transform the energy equation not by increased drilling or planting, but by recovering more from the resources already at hand.

Both, then, have some relation to energy efficiency — which has the same goal of making do with less, or making more from the same. In a resource challenged world, as population grows, we may find ourselves leaning more and more on productivity gains to help energy generation keep up with rising demand.

You may find it unusual to think of an enzyme as a form of high-tech drilling – but in punching holes in cellulosic barriers and allowing for efficient energy recovery from a known resource — they have much in common.

Are all drillers equal?

No, if only enzymes had the same tax advantages that well drilling had — a level playing field, instead of picking winners and losers – we might live in an even more energy-efficient world.

But that’s a topic for another time. For now, just focus on the fact that you have one more good reason to keep putty out of the mouths and tummies of our little ones.