Q Microbe may be the future of fuel

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) - A multimillion dollar project conducted by Qteros in Chicopee, Massachusetts will create biofuel using a valuable local resource: the Q Microbe.

The microbe “eats” anything from agricultural waste to paper sludge. The Q Microbe converts plant products it into ethanol biofuel.

Ethanol can be used as an energy alternative to gasoline and other fossil fuels.

“Oil is a limited quantity. Eventually we are going to run out of it. And we do need to find alternative ways of producing, not just fuels, but also bioproducts. And the Q Microbe has the potential to do that,” Dr. Susan Leschine told 22News on Tuesday.

Dr. Leschine is a professor of microbiology at the University of Massachuetts Amherst. She developed the Q Microbe from a soil sample collected at the Quabbin Reservoir .

Research associate Tom Warnick gathered the sample and realized they had discovered something special.

"We had all these bacteria that looked pretty similar. Slightly curved rods that were roughly the same size […] And then this one particular soil sample from the Quabbin… I got one that wasn't the slightly curved rod!” explained Warnick, “So right of that kind of clued us in that we should look a little more closely at this one.”

It produced more ethanol than any of the others microbes tested by the team. Of all the soil collected and studied from around the world, the Quabbin sample was the only one to contain the Q Microbe.

Future visits to the Quabbin will not be necessary. The Q Microbe can be grown in labs. The challenge now, according to Dr. Leschine, is to create a sustainable and economically viable product that can compete with gasoline.