OK - Does Algae live up to the Hype?

[suziedemocrat]

It sounds a little too good to be true.

Almost three billion years ago our planet was a hostile place with excess N2, CO2 and toxic gases in the atmosphere until algae in the oceans began to transform CO2 through photosynthesis into oxygen (O2) making the air breathable. Then sunlight split some of the oxygen molecules to recombine into ozone (O3) and created the Ozone Layer, which protected the Earth's surface from the devastating UV rays from the sun. Therefore, without algae we would not be here today."

Today we are calling on algae again to save our planet. It is worth repeating the five major factors that favor algae. These are as
follows:

1) Algae produce 100 times more oil per acre than traditional food oilseed crops (i.e. corn, soy, etc.).

2) Algae eat CO2, the major Global Warming Gas, and produce oxygen.

3) Algae require only sunshine and non-drinkable (salt or brackish) water.

4) Algae do not compete with food crops for either agricultural land or fresh water.

5) Algae can reproduce themselves and their oil every 6 hours, while it takes Mother Nature millions of years to produce crude oil in the ground.

more at link: http://www.csrwire.com/News/9259.html

[jgraz]

1. One of many good, relatively simple solutions to our oil addiction

There's also cheap, efficient solar cells, new powerful battery technology and much more. The shame of it is that we've done very little to find replacements for oil, yet many discoveries are out there for the taking.

Just think where we'd be if we actually TRIED to find a solution...

[pberq]

2. Thanks for posting

[EVDebs]

3. Yes, and can assist in producing hydrogen

Enzyme Lets Algae Produce Hydrogen to Use as Clean Fuel
Berkeley scientist says discovery is like `striking oil'

by Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, January 29, 2000

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/29/MN76411.DTL&type=printable

""The breakthrough, by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley and the U.S. Department of Energy, would make possible the commercial production of hydrogen gas by photosynthesis in tanks, ponds or the open ocean.

``I guess it's the equivalent of striking oil,'' said Tasios Melis, a microbial biology professor at UC Berkeley. ``It was enormously exciting. It was unbelievable.''

Melis made the discovery with UC Berkeley researcher Liping Zhang and with Michael Seibert, Maria Ghiardi and Marc Forestier of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a Department of Energy project in Golden, Colo.

The team's findings appear in this month's issue of Plant Physiology, a science journal. ""

[Exultant Democracy]

12. Thats hot.

I wonder how far this has progressed in the last 7 years.

[EVDebs]

16. Don't know but UC Berkeley has a new contract w/BP

UC Academics Excluded From BP Contract Vote
By Richard Brenneman (02-16-07)
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=02-16-07&storyID=26341

"UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate probably won’t have a vote about the planned half-billion-dollar alternative fuel program now being negotiated with BP—the company formerly known as British Petroleum."

And in the past the Lawrence Livermore Lab's Zinc Air Fuel Cell program was similarly shut down. The LLL ZAFC project

Zinc-air technology moves toward commercialization
http://www.llnl.gov/str/News1297.html

obviously never got 'commercialized'. Zinc oxide pellets with a potassium hydroxide catalyst, opposed to the hydrogen fuel cell PEM, with platinum catalyst and high costs, lost out the the hydrogen PEM projects.

If the ZAFC and Algae projects are shunted aside look for BP sucking up to be part of the rationale.

[msongs]

4. hey, some algaes are edible! 10 birds with one stone (so to speak) nt

[tridim]

5. It's all good as long as we keep the research out of the big-oil/corporate sector

Guaranteed they'd screw it up in their quest to maximize profits.

This is exactly the type of thing our government should be funding.

[EVDebs]

19. See post #16 re UC/BP's contract 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours'

Noteworthy that this info has been out there for over 7 years now. We need a Dem in '08 not beholden to Big Oil or corporate interests. Is this possible ?

[kestrel91316]

6. My alma mater is working on this with Solix.

http://welcome.colostate.edu/index.asp?url=media_algae

[NNadir]

7. You could ask these guys who were pondering it in 2003.

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=447609751&f=719605551&m=932606061

These guys say they're going to grow ten million gallons per year.

http://www.grainnet.com/articles/PetroSun_to_Commence_Field_Testing_for_Algae_Based_Biodiesel_Production_in_Arizona_-39620.html

[suziedemocrat]

8. I found this article

I found this here: http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/238672

But like most dream technologies, CO2-to-algae-to-oil systems would be great if designing them didn't present so many challenges.

Last month, Cambridge, Mass.-based GreenFuel Technologies, a leading developer of algae-to-biofuel systems, found that a pilot system it had built in Arizona was growing algae so aggressively that it couldn't harvest them fast enough. As a result, the algae began to die.

The company also found out that the cost of its next-generation system was twice as much as it originally calculated, so it was forced to shut down the Arizona pilot and lay off nearly half of its staff.

This doesn't bode well for business. Power utilities, normally a conservative bunch, tend to shy away from any technology that isn't rock solid and risk free. They want to see more trial and less error.

[mopinko]

10. bwahahahahaha rock solid and risk free bwahahahahaha

give me a break.
i hope everything they say about algae is true. i don't even know why they are talking about carbon sequestration. feed it to the algae. let them eat the pig shit, too.

[EVDebs]

20. Right on, bro ! nt

[greenman3610]

21. feeding CO2 to algae does not solve the problem

if the CO2 still stays in the biosphere.
The CO2 that is a problem is the stuff we've dug out of the
earth.
If it remains free to recirculate above ground, we
still get the warming.
That is why carbon must be sequestered or avoided entirely.

[AndyTiedye]

9. k/r

:kick:

[bonito]

11. K&R n/t

[glitch]

13. It;s good all right. Thanks for posting K & R nt

[TheWraith]

14. You want algae, go to the end of the Mississippi River.

Since it drains a huge amount of farmland, the Mississippi carries away a ton of fertilizers with it. When that nutrient-rich water hits the Gulf of Mexico, it causes an algae bloom so intense that the algae actually overwhelms and kills all other life in the area. You want algae, that's the best place to start.

[EVDebs]

17. So we can put a use to that 'dead zone' at the mouth of the Mississippi river ?

Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia
http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/

[DarkTirade]

15. Also, when said oil is used to make biodiesel

it puts out less carbon after being burned than it takes out of the air when being grown. Therefore it will help lower carbon in the atmosphere even if it's turned right around into fuel for big honkin' trucks and old 70s muscle cars. :)
I'd say it does a damn sight better than trying to turn our corn into ethanol, at least for now.

[NMDemDist2]

18. some very smart people around here where brackish water is VERY plentiful

have gotten a grant from DOE to start experimenting with this.

I am interested to see how it develops.....