CNN feature on algae derived biofuel

Pond scum to the rescue!! UpBeatnik aka Vic Aguilar

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• green
• sustainable
• biofuels
• renewable
• alternativeenergy

[xwizzard]

Question: if the concern is green house gasses and CO2 production by burning alternative fuels how are we fixing this problem? I agree this is a great source for biofuel, but isnt the global "climate change" issue being overlooked by burning a different kind of fuel?

[UpBeatnik]

The carbon released from fossil fuels is presicely that, ie. fossilized carbon that took millions of years to sequester. Since the industrial revolution (just over a century), we have been releasing billions of tons of this 'fossil carbon', hence the warming. This algae system captures it's carbon from the atmosphere, and releases less carbon when it's burned than it captured in it's production (some is converted into thermal energy in the combustion process). UpBeatnik

[Yassiib]

this is amazing and i think that we have to get more people to know about this because if it really works then is is truly AMAZING

[kmagstudios]

Biofuel puts off a lot less CO2 then fossil fuels, but the algae from which this fuel comes from uses the CO2 to grow, so it comes around full circle... so the impact would be close to 0... Algae is definitely the future of Alternative Energy...

[TheStormyleewolf]

Problem is plastic that you see it in is made from crude oil. I remember MSN saying plastic was made from oil and we would not have plastic cups if we ran out of oil

[perkele311]

We need to get this moving quickly. R&D as much as possible. This needs to be rolled out ASAP. What are we waiting for?



[ddnguyen278]

Algae produces 100x more fuel for given area than any other crop and it doesn't need good soil to do it. Say goodbye to the age of oil, it's the age of Algae!

[40joel]

@UpBeatnik thats exactly what I was going to say!

[platinum243125]

@UpBeatnik Good point, but you can't convert atoms into energy in a regular chemical process. To do that, you would be breaking the law of conservation of matter. But, you can, however, use the carbon that would regularly react to form co2, and get it into a different reaction so it produces something less harmful...

[jeffsandychelsea]

This is even better than hemp biofuels (not that we shouldn't grow hemp for its multitude of other uses) because it can grow in areas that are unusable for food crops.

[xwizzard]

@Darthbelal In any combustion reaction there are other products, plants and algae are NOT composed entirely of carbon. Nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide are both pollutants created by burning plant-based fuels. Although there are methods of reducing the production, I've yet to see a program that pulls the existing pollution from the atmosphere and removes it from the air cycle and/or re-uses it. Combustion is a natural process, but massive scale combustion is unnatural and unsustainable.

[Darthbelal]

@xwizzard CO2 isn't anywhere near a potent greenhouse gas as you seem to think. Also, it's plant food and vital for life on earth. On a geologic scale, there was many times the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere as there is today. You think carbon dioxide is bad, it's needed.

[davepamn]

Algae is grown in long plastic bags

Algae is shiphon off fast

100,000 gallons of algae oil per acre per year.

10th of New Mexico could provide enough fuel for the transportation of the United States.

What are the trends for Biodiesel from Algae by 2020?

[bobstevefrank123]

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit....guy's lying to get VC money. Algae's not 100,000 diesel gallons/acre. It's 2,000 gallons at a very optimistic estimation according to independent scientific reports. You will have to cover the entire Gulf with algae to get enough biodiesel to handle just North America's fuel needs. The answer to our problems is still yet to be developed.