:: Faculty Member Launches
Industry-Government Collaboration ::
December 2005: On a recent trip to Wyoming, Klaus Nüsslein, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, met with members of the Gas & Oil Industry and they have agreed to fund the initial phase of a research project that attempts to stimulate coal bed methane production. In work related to a NSF BioGeochemisty proposal the research groups of Klaus Nüsslein, Steven Petsch (Department of Geosciences) and Anna Martini (Amherst College Department of Geology) were already able to show that most of the gas produced is of biological origin. Now, with an extended collaboration to scientists and engineers of the DOE subsidiary Savannah River National Laboratory, attempts will be made to stimulate natural gas (methane) producing microbes to convert unmineable coal to methane underground. Further research ideas include the use of other buried organic matter with the intent to provide long-term biotechnology-driven solutions for enhancement and sustained production of natural gas.
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