This sounds Great! Green Gas...Renewable.....Carbon Nuetral..Not ethonol/Biodesiel...Gas from Algea

[masmdu]

Sapphire Energy Has announced that they have produced renewable 91 octane gasoline that conforms to ASTM certification, made from a breakthrough process that produces crude oil directly from sunlight, CO2 and photosynthetic microorganisms, beginning with algae.

“Sapphire’s goal is to be the world’s leading producer of renewable petrochemical products,” said CEO and co-founder Jason Pyle, speaking from the influential Simmons Alternative Energy Conference. “Our goal is to produce a renewable fuel without the downsides of current biofuel approaches.

http://nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news5.30.08d.html

Good explanation why BioDiesel/Ethonol wont work...(here)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html

[nomorenomore08]

1. Sounds awesome, if it actually works. All that's needed is more investment.

I've also read that 400 square miles' worth of solar panels would provide all the electricity the country needs. Hopefully, in the near future, we can summon the political and financial will to actually do these things.

[ryanmuegge]

2. It's always been laughable to me when biodiesel is sold as a "renewable" resource

Yeah, it's renewable as long as there are fossile fuels available to make it.

[Lance_Boyle]

4. explain?

What fossil fuels are needed for biodiesel? Ingredients are vegetable oil and methoxide (methanol and lye).

[ryanmuegge]

5. Link

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/july05/ethanol.toocostly.ssl.html

I'm no scientist or anything, but I'm sure what this guy says is valid.

[Lance_Boyle]

6. this is not an indictment of biodiesel

the article merely points out that if you use food crops for something other than food, then those crops are not available for food. It's a common red-herring argument against biodiesel, but it is entirely true of ethanol. Biodiesel can be made from virgin (unused) cooking oils, but the recent focus is on using algal oils - the same oils this Sapphire group thinks it can further refine into gasoline. But the energy required to crack the long hydrocarbons into something as volatile as gasoline would be astronomical.

BTW - Sapphire's website touts the first green 747 flight on its website. That 747 was fueled by BIODIESEL (or its Jet-A equivalent), not Sapphire's theoretical green gasoline.

I smell venture-capital scamming all over Sapphire. They are not forthcoming with any technical details, and borrow most of what they do publish from established algae biodiesel operations. Then they cryptically claim "we can crack it further." If it can be done, it's unlikely Sapphire is the company that's going to do it.

[Lance_Boyle]

3. gasoline from algae?

unheard of. Has anyone made gasoline from vegetable oil before? Not that I know of. But biodiesel from algae is progressing nicely. Valcent has recently upped their production estimates to 180K gallons of useful oil per acre from its Vertigro system.

Long rant short - you (and Time) are wrong about biodiesel. Sapphire appears to be a pipe dream at the moment - no word on HOW they're hoping to make "crude oil" from algal oil. But the algal biodiesel prospects are good. Sapphire might oughta start there, and worry about cracking the base stock further once it's got a product (biodiesel).

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. Ethanol can be made from algae - after the oil is removed for biodiesel

The remaining mass can then be fermented into ethanol or used as cattle feed.

[n2doc]

7. This has the potential to do some good

But... what is always needed is space to grow the algae , fertilizers and water. With clever design the last 2 could be linked to wastewater treatment plants, but the effluent would need to be sterile to make it work well.

But add it to the mix...

[Lance_Boyle]

8. see VertiGro

from Valcent: http://www.valcent.net/s/Home.asp

A flat algae pond produces ~40 gallons of useful oil per acre. Valcent's VertiGro system produces 180,000 gallons of useful oil per acre. No fertilizer needed - just sunlight and water.

But I still don't see how Sapphire hopes to make gasoline from this oil without requiring massive energy input for the thermal depolymerization process. Biodiesel from algae = easy. Gasoline from algae = really hard, really energy intensive.

[n2doc]

10. Interesting.

The silly thing is that there is just as big a shortage of Diesel. So anyone who can make it for less than the going price can make money. Given that diesel prices are killing the transportation industry they need to go for it.

[Beregond2]

11. Umm...

doesn't this produce carbon dioxide when burned? How does that help?

[supernova]

12. So there's a use for swamp gas?

lol