Video: How to make petrol with bacteria Researchers in South Korea have harnessed the Escherichia coli bacteria that help us to digest food - and sometimes cause food poisoning - to produce a replacement for petrol from fossil fuels. British researchers have been working on similar technology to convert sugar into fuel similar to diesel. While the yields are still too low to make much of a difference to our reliance on fossil fuels, it is a promising glimpse of how our cars could be powered in the future.