Fuel from algae....if this is legit, why hasn't our govt looked into this?!

[carlyhippy]

http://cc.pubco.net/www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html

[rucky]

1. It's legit. And there's several farms and extration plants being built.

But it's not heavily invested in right now. Lotsa OTC action, but mostly penny stocks.

[carlyhippy]

4. it's awesome someone figured this out

wonder how the govt will figure out a way to tax algae...

[Lance_Boyle]

2. yes it's legit

Valcent, Global Green Solutions, and Petrosun are just 3 of many companies working on it. All the govt research funds to corn for ethanol (well-connected corn-state politicians made sure of that). The algae-state lobby is just getting fired up. ;-)

[carlyhippy]

5. what a cool discovery...

who knew...algae...

[panader0]

3. I posted about this a few days ago.

There's an algae place here in So. Az. Some algaes are as much as 50% oil. An "acre" (hard to define because it's grown vertcally) can yield enough bio-fuel to power a small car for over 300,000 miles. I had a link the other day that I got from the google.

[carlyhippy]

6. I must have missed the thread before

I hope this gets in the public so everyone knows about it, I had no idea.

[yourout]

7. Algae based diesel is flat out our best hope at rapidly reducing oil imports because.....

the infrastructure is already in place.

Most modern diesels can run on the stuff right now.

We just need to make sure Big Oil does not find a way to kill it.

[rucky]

8. That's why I invested in PetroSun

they already are part of big oil, but diversifying into Algae. So I figured they'll have the best backing/favor - or at least a target for a buyout.

[plcdude]

9. I am already in

Valcent it is the future.

[IDemo]

10. A good read about biodiesel from algae, for those interested

from Mike Briggs of the University of New Hampshire (who used to post in DU's E/E forum a long time ago):

http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Algae don't donate to Repug election campaigns.

There are some things even pond scum won't do.

[Indenturedebtor]

12. Why? Two words: FARM BILL n/t

[readmoreoften]

13. Because our government doesn't look into anything. Industry does and they decide if it's profitable.

Is algae profitable?

[yourout]

14. At almost 5$ a gallon it will be.

As goofy as is sounds high gas/diesel prices may save our nation and our planet by forcing us off of Dino fuels.

[readmoreoften]

16. I'm not so sure the government gives a good goddamn about saving our nation or planet.

Especially those who own oil futures. They're making a killing. In more ways than one.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. KLM Airlines is involved in a project to make jet fuel out of algae.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/3998449

[carlyhippy]

17. good for them!

I hope all industry, or at least most industry, looks into alternative energy
Carly

[hootinholler]

18. Not only is it legit...

It's a CO2 buffer, the CO2 from the stack isn't emitted until the fuel is burned.

-Hoot

[LostInAnomie]

19. Because no one from the algae lobby has written a fat ass check yet.

That's the only thing that gets our worthless legislators off their worthless asses.

[csziggy]

20. Is that the same program they were growing algae on sewage effluent?

That looked like a win-win situation.

There is no magic-bullet fuel crop that can solve our energy woes without harming the environment, says virtually every scientist studying the issue. But most say that algae—single-celled pond scum—comes closer than any other plant because it grows in wastewater, even seawater, requiring little more than sunlight and carbon dioxide to flourish. NREL had an algae program for 17 years until it was shut down in the mid-1990s for lack of funding. This year the lab is cranking it back up again. A dozen start-up companies are also trying to convert the slimy green stuff into a viable fuel.

GreenFuel Technologies, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is at the head of the pack. Founded by MIT chemist Isaac Berzin, the company has developed a process that uses algae in plastic bags to siphon carbon dioxide from the smoke-stack emissions of power plants. Algae not only reduce a plant's global warming gases, but also devour other pollutants. Some algae make starch, which can be processed into ethanol; others produce tiny droplets of oil that can be brewed into biodiesel or even jet fuel. Best of all, algae in the right conditions can double in mass within hours. While each acre of corn produces around 300 gallons (1,135 liters) of ethanol a year and an acre of soybeans around 60 gallons (227 liters) of biodiesel, each acre of algae theoretically can churn out more than 5,000 gallons (19,000 liters) of biofuel each year.

"Corn or soybeans, you harvest once a year," says Berzin. "Algae you harvest every day. And we've proved we can grow algae from Boston to Arizona." Berzin's company has partnered with Arizona Public Service, the state's largest utility, to test algae production at APS's natural-gas-burning Redhawk power plant just west of Phoenix. Algae farms around that one plant, located on 2,000 acres (809 hectares) of bone-dry Sonoran Desert, could double the current U.S. production of biodiesel, says Berzin.

The energy farm, as GreenFuel calls it, isn't much to look at, just a cluster of shipping containers and office trailers next to a plastic greenhouse structure longer than a football field and perhaps 50 feet (15 meters) wide. Outside the greenhouse, rows of large plastic tubes filled with bubbling bright green liquid hang like giant slugs from hooks. After making a few calls to his boss, GreenFuel's security-conscious head of field operations, Marcus Gay, allows me to inspect this "seed farm," which grows algae for the greenhouse. Everything else is off-limits. The company guards its secrets closely.

With good reason: Only perhaps a dozen people on the planet know how to grow algae in high-density systems, says Gay. Algae specialists, long near the bottom of the biology food chain, are becoming the rock stars. Two of Arizona's largest universities recently started algae programs. Their biggest challenge, as with cellulosic ethanol, is reducing the cost of algae fuel. "At the end of the day for this to work, this has to be cheaper than petroleum diesel," says Gay. "If we're one penny over the cost of diesel per gallon, we're sunk."
Excerpt from Biofuels - National Geographic, October 2007
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/10/biofuels/biofuels-text