[ExI] giant blob attacks florida

[spike at rainier66.com]

I remember these on occasion in Florida, and they are disgusting:

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/NewsNation/status/1634983770855215107

 

Seems to me like nature is handing us the solution to a vexing problem.  We
mine phosphorus to use in fertilizer and a number of industrial processes,
but it seems to me there should be some means of extracting it from biomass.
Every cell in every living organism is powered by adenosine triphosphate,
every molecule of which contains three phosphorus atoms.  Those are mass 31
each, and the ATP is a bit over 500 molar mass, so nearly 20 percent by mass
is phosphorus.  

 

If we could rig up a way for a robot thing to go down the beach and scoop
that revolting glob, take it and compost it somehow, perhaps by just heaping
it into a huge revolting pile (you hope to never accidently fall into) that
one would cover and draw off the sulfur products of decay, from which sulfur
would be recovered.  The carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen would go on
their way in gas form, leaving behind valuable sulfur and phosphorus.  Seems
like all we need is a big cave or mine where we could recover the dihydrogen
sulfate and sulfur dioxide by chemical scrubbing, then the phosphorus would
be left behind in some form.  We could make fertilizer out of it.

 

spike

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