CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Taking inspiration from a cow's digestive tract, bacteria from a South American catfish and raw material from pretty much any plant that grows, Tifton scientist J.C. Bell may have come up with an ingenious way to make gasoline and other fuels.

His formula is simple. Basically: Biomass (such as grass clippings or wood chips) plus the right bacteria equals gasoline or diesel fuel.

And if you need a metaphor, Bell is happy to provide one.

"Have you ever stood downwind from a herd of cows?" he asks.

Cows eat grass. Bacteria in their digestive tracts break down that biomass and produce methane. The methane passes from the cows' bodies. Methane is CH4, the simplest of the hydrocarbons. Crude oil, gasoline and diesel fuel are made of hydrocarbons.

So if you get the right bacteria, you can turn biomass into any of these hydrocarbons, Bell said. Use bacteria from the guts of Amazonian catfish that eat wood and, boom, you've got a way to make oil - roughly 2 barrels of it for every ton of biomass, Bell said.

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