Could termites power a 'clean coal' revolution?

Termites may hold the key to transforming coal — a big polluting chunk of the global energy supply — into cleaner energy for the world, according to University of Delaware researchers. In the American Chemical Society journal Energy and Fuels, UD Professor Prasad Dhurjati and his research team describe in detail how a community of termite-gut microbes converts coal into methane, the chief ingredient in natural gas. Dhurjati and a dozen research students at UD have painstakingly broken down all of the steps in the termite microbes’ conversion of coal to natural gas, developing computer models describing each biochemical reaction as the termite microbial community transforms coal into cleaner fuel. For more, go to http://ow.ly/FKHn30nfIcY.