3. Fire Ant Jet Fuel?
Recently, we read that fire ants contain up to 16% oil content, by weight, and the fatty acid profile is in line with a lot of oil sources – for example, soybeans check in at around 18% oil content. Researchers report:
Black (Solenopsis richteri) and red (Solenopsis invicta, Buren) imported fire ants€¦now represent a considerable nuisance to humans in both rural and urban settings. The researchers report more of a focus on controlling fire ants than utilizing them for practical applications, but said that “one study of the lipid composition€¦determined that 65-75% was composed of hydrocarbons. In these studies, only the cuticular lipids were extracted by dipping the insects briefly into hexane. The heat of combustion was reported at 133,000 BTU/gallons – which is a 10% lift from biodiesel and roughly comparable to kerosene (jet fuel).
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