algae bio diesel
Algae produce biodiesel can produce enough fuel for the future?
When do you think technology will be applied to production? What are the pros and cons?
Found this article in the Christian Science Monitor, a few weeks ago. I think this is what is on Taling and should answer your question fully. I think Richard Branson (Virgin Boss Fella) is due to 25 million U.S. dollars these guys too! "Isaac Berzin is a big fan of algae. The small, single-celled plant, he says, could transform the world's energy needs and cut global warming. overshadowed by a push of billions of dollars in other "clean coal" technologies, a handful of tiny companies are racing to create an even cleaner, more green the process using the same slimy stuff that thrives in oceans worldwide. Enter Dr. Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. About three years ago while working on an experiment for growing algae on the International Space Station came up with the idea of using gas to clean exhaust energy of the plant. If I could find the right strain of algae, he thought he could turn the nation's greenhouse gas power stations clean stations with generators attached algae farm next. "This is a great idea," Berzin says, "a really powerful idea." And one that led to the top – a rooftop. Screwed into the exhaust stacks of brick and glass 20-megawatt plant behind MIT's campus are rows of fat, clear tubes, each with green algae soup boiling inside. Fed a generous helping of CO2-laden emissions, courtesy of the power plant exhaust stack, the algae grow quickly even in the pale sunlight of New England. The cleansing bubbles skyward, but with CO2 by 40 per cent less (a higher reduction requires that the Kyoto treaty) and another advantage: 86 percent less nitrous oxide. After the CO2 is soaked up like a sponge, the algae is harvested daily. yellow, the other with the dried green flakes that remained. Even that dried remnant can be further reprocessed to create ethanol, also used for transport. Being a good Samaritan on air quality usually costs a lot. But Berzin's is a hard nose utility executives and climate change skeptics might like: You make a small profit. "You want to do good for the environment, of course, but we're not forcing people to do it for that reason – and that's the key" says the founder of GreenFuel Technologies in Cambridge, Mass. "We're showing how they can help the environment and make money at the same time." GreenFuel has already raised $ 11 million in venture capital funding and is conducting a field trial at a 1,000-megawatt plant owned by a major energy company Southwest. Next year, GreenFuel expects two to seven more such demo, and even a whole professional production system in 2009. Even though it is still early, and may be a remote possibility, "the technology is really exciting," says Barry Worthington, executive director of the Energy Association of the USA in Washington, which represents electric utilities, government agencies and oil and gas. One key is selecting an algae with a high density in oil – about 50 percent of their weight. Because this type of algae also grows so fast, it can produce 15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre. Only 60 gallons are produced from soybeans, which along with corn are biodiesel crops today. GreenFuel is not alone in the race algae oil. Month past Greenshift Corporation, an incubator of Mount Arlington, NJ, technology company, the license of CO2-eating algae technology that uses A screen like the algae filter. It was developed by David Bayless, a researcher at Ohio University. A prototype is capable of handling 140 cubic meters of flue gas per minute, an amount equal to the exhaust from 50 cars or a 3 megawatt power plant, Greenshift said in a statement. For his part, Berzin calculates that just one 1,000 megawatt plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. That would require 2,000 acres of "farm" algae-filled tubes near the power plant. There are nearly 1,000 power plants nationwide with enough space around a few hundred to several thousand hectares of seaweed farming and make a good profit, he says. Energy security advocates like the idea because algae can reduce U.S. dependence foreign oil. "There is great interest in algae right now," says John Sheehan, who worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) research project of algae on smokestack emissions until budget cuts ended in 1996. In 1990, Sheehan's NREL program calculated that just 15,000 square miles of desert (the desert Sonora, California, and Arizona is more than eight times that size) could grow enough algae to replace nearly all current diesel needs of the nation. "I've had very few phone calls recently about it," said Mr. Sheehan. "This is not a crazy idea at all". "
