I think it's only a matter of time until just about every chemical we need can be manufactured from excretions of some waste-eating bacteria.
Consider Brocadia anammoxidans, first discovered in a yeast plant in the late 1990s; it consumes ammonia, converting it to nitrogen gas, producing hydrazine (rocket fuel) in a process known as an anammox reaction. It's great for sewage treatment plants where ammonia waste is common and for handling industrial effluent, also high in ammonia.
Treatments utilizing the tiny ammonia-eating critters are already working effectively in England and scientists hope the new process, which they say consumes less fuel and is better for the environment, will become popular world-wide.
NASA eyes establishing orbiting lunar outpost
12 years ago
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