To understand the capabilities of fungus when it comes to the production of biofuels, it will be easiest to start with a historical reference, and work forward. In WWII’s infamous island hopping campaigns of the South Pacific, soldiers would frequently complain of “jungle rot”, a tendency fabric equipment showed to just disintegrate while in use. The culprit was found to be Tricoderma reesei, an aggressive fungus with an appetite for cellulose. Cellulose, widely thought of as the most common biological matter on the planet, is a simple biopolymer that makes up the majority of plant bodies. T.reesei, resourceful fungus that it is, produces an enzyme, cellulase, which breaks down the structure of cellulose, converting it into the common monosaccharide (simple sugar) glucose, which it then uses as nutrition to grow. Put simply, it eats plant matter (socks, fatigues, tents, etc) and uses the sugar to grow. By extracting the cellulase enzymes and mixing them with a liquefied wood pulp, sugar can be produced. Add that sugar to yeast, ferment, and you have fungal ethanol, or myconol as some like to call it. Best of all, you don’t need specific crops to produce it: any waste cellulose will do.

If you aren’t partial to ethanol, and would prefer your biofuel be of the diesel variety, there is a fungus to meet your needs: Metarhizium anisoplia. Capable of producing the enzyme lipase, this fungus allows methanol and oil to bond without heat processing. Simply compact the mycelium into pellets, run methanol and sunflower oil over the pellets, and biodiesel is already synthesizing.

Still not sold? All right, out come the big guns: Gliocladium roseum. Known only to grow in the Patagonian regions of Argentina and Chile, this fungus creates metabolic hydrocarbons almost identical to those found in diesel obtained from crude oil. What’s more, it contains hydrocarbons like octane, burns more cleanly and efficiently than regular diesel because of its combination of low-molecular weight alcohols and esters, and actually burns more efficiently than bioethanol because it stores more energy without oxygen atoms in its structure. Far from perfect, Gliocladium roseum, still produces less fuel naturally when it’s metabolizing cellulose than it does when it is metabolizing sugar, and what fuel it does produce emerges in gaseous as opposed to liquid form, but even with these flaws a biological organism that can produce clean burning diesel fuel is nothing to scoff at.

For many people, even long-time environmentalists, encounters with the potentials of mycotechnology are often shocking and difficult to believe. Something in their simplicity and the lack of heavy industrial involvement in their creation engenders skepticism. “If this works, why I haven’t I heard of it before?” people wonder, and that is a question mycologist Paul Stamets has been waging a vigorous campaign of education to try to answer. Stamets, who has become a go-to man for all matters mycotechnological, has not only been pushing to increase awareness of myconol opportunities, but also has been working on marrying the idea of mycoremediation (fungal soil clean up) to myconol production: fungal mycelium are used to break down the complex hydrocarbons left behind in petrochemical waste, producing fungal sugars from the hydrocarbons, then using those sugars along with yeast to produce fungal ethanol. Petrochemical waste to usable fuel and clean soil in a few easy steps. In the wake of the BP catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, Stamets issued a statement pushing for internet-based training on the utilities of fungus, as well as for an increase in fungal research. With a little luck, some word of mouth, and a continuing dedication to educating the public on the roles fungus can play in helping the environment, Stamets may be able to change the conversation from “If this works, why I haven’t I heard of it before?” to “If this works, why aren’t we using it already?”, which it can be argued, is a far better question to be asking.

Also, don’t miss out on Paul Stamets’s TED talk - 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World. It’s pretty amazing.