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ALGAE
triples
in volume
daily
(unlike corn / 1 crop per year)
ALGAE
converts CO2 to O2
ALGAE
(some
Algae species over 50% oil) convert easily to Bio-Fuel |
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ALGAE OIL converts easily to PLASTICS |
The best angle:
(Robert
Kennedy, Jr. & T. Boone Pickens promote this)
Wind now is competitive with coal. There's enough wind in
Montana, N. Dakota, Wyoming and Texas to replace all electric
power in America including electric cars.
Properly harnessed, there's enough sun coming into the
American SW to replace all electric power in America
including electric cars. (One "Mirror Farm" in the
desert heats turbines and can equal energy output of a nuclear
power plant).
We need one U.S. paid for SMART GRID ($180 billion) that this
energy can be both transported nationally and stored when
needed. With this grid in place, electric cars from wind/sun
would have NO CO2 emissions at all. The entrepreneurs would
pay for the Wind Farms and Mirror/Sun Farms hopefully replacing
Exxon/Mobil and other Big Oil.
Nearly 2 million people have signed Pickens Pledge for Oil
Independence in 10 years.
Click Here for more
information/discussion at Pickens amazing interactive website.
Algae can be used as fertilizer. Algae Bio-Fuel
can be used in Airplanes and Jets, for cars during
transition to electric, and for the long haul, converted into
plastics.
ALSO, ALGAE GROWN TO REMOVE EXISTING CO2 FROM EARTH'S
ATMOSPHERE.
Continue reading to learn more about Algae. |
|
QUICK SYNOPSIS: Algae
Reverses Global Warming
and
with $308
Billion U.S. investment, we REPLACE OPEC!! |
Algae
not Corn for Bio-Fuel
Algae
multiplies so quickly and produces so much oxygen per
square foot that ponds with a total surface area five
times the size of Colorado (1994 data) would be enough to
start reversing our growing CO2 problem. Corn nets approx.
81 gallons bio-diesel per acre (inefficiently taking food crops off the table).
Soy nets
41 gallons per acre. Algae yields as high as
20,000+ gallons per acre.
The acreage numbers/dollar amounts are right on the old idea:
Enough biodiesel to replace all petroleum transportation
fuels could be grown in 9.5 million acres
- far less than the 450 million
acres currently used for crop
farming in the US, and the over 500 million acres used as grazing land for
farm animals. Instead of transportation fuels, these algae farms, placed on scrub land – not affecting
America’s crop/grazing land, could use waste streams
(until the
transition to wind/solar eliminates coal, the CO2
from power plants, human sewage, or waste from animal
farms)
as their CO2 food source. Nutrients
could be extracted from algae for a high quality
fertilizer. And on an ongoing basis, the algae oil could
be converted into plastics.
To move the US from dependence on foreign oil (OPEC), would take
approx. $308 billion to
build sufficient algae farms. Thereafter, the operating costs would equate
to $46.2 billion per year
for enough algae farms to yield all
the oil feedstock necessary for the entire country.
Compare
$46.2 billion annually going to US farmers to the
$500+ billion the US spends each year purchasing crude
oil from foreign countries, with all
of that money leaving the
US economy. Plus the $40 billion
spent yearly by the US government in defense
of mideast oil.
(or go electric and use the Algae for Jet Fuel, Fertilizer
and Plastics).
A new state agri-business of
algae farms? Or grants for ocean farming? Algae,
pond scum also a
planet saver to
eat for their food source existing CO2? YES, if we take action!
(Note: Much of info
in LTE above is found in article by University of NH
Physics / Bio-Diesel Group Professor
Dr. Michael Briggs PhD:
http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html
)
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ALGAE vs. Foreign Oil
While this is a great option and has very workable numbers, wind/solar
for electric creates no CO2.
Algae then could eat existing
CO2 making Jet Fuel, Fertilizer & Plastics.
Click here
for
Briggs article
According to Dr. Michael
Briggs PhD, chair of Physics Dept. and Bio-Diesel Group at University of
New Hampshire, to move the US from dependence on foreign oil, would
take approx.
$308 billion
to build
sufficient algae
farms. Thereafter, the operating costs (including power
consumption, labor, chemicals, and fixed capital costs (taxes,
maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and return on investment) would
equate to $46.2 billion per year
for enough algae farms, to yield all the oil
feedstock necessary for the
entire country. Compare that
to the (now $500+ billion) the U.S. spends
each year purchasing crude oil from foreign countries, with all of
that money leaving the U.S.economy.
Click here to see
Michael Briggs article and cost
comparison of Algae vs. Foreign Oil.
Comment from Algae blog:
Most researchers are currently in the development phases for prototyping of a
Closed Loop Bioreactor used to grow algae under controlled environment and
second to efficiently extract oil, starch and
protein from the cells.
As for production, in theory we can get up to 100,000 gallons per acre in around 10 years,
however 10,000 gallons an acre is currently
being achieved.
Click here to read article from MIT Technology
Review:
|
The following podcast transcript explains
existing ALGAE technology ready
now.
|
Pond Scum or Planet Savers? |
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Pond scum just might be the answer to
solving the CO2 woes of the Industrial Age.
Host Bruce Gellerman
visits with Dr. Isaac Berzin, founder of GreenFuel Technologies
Corporation. Berzin is working on a prototype that uses algae to
convert power plant emissions into biofuels. (5:15)
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Pond Scum or Planet Savers?
GELLERMAN: A few years ago, Isaac Berzin traveled from Israel to
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with two goals in mind--to
get his post doc in chemical engineering and save the world.
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Smokestack emissions bubble through algae-filled
tubes at MIT's Cogen plant. (Photo: Ashley Ahearn)
 |
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Well, he got his degree and now he's closing in on the other goal:
saving the world from global warming by using one of the most
primitive forms of life: algae...you know, the yucky stuff that grows
on the side of fish tanks and swimming pools...pond scum...just don't
call it that in front of Berzin.
BERZIN: Okay, they're not pond scum, they're great. So, I want you
to think differently. They're not ugly or whatever. They're the
sweetest creatures.
GELLERMAN: Clearly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But
according to Berzin, algae-- primitive one cell plants--are the
world's champs at photosynthesis, capturing the suns rays and
converting it to chemical energy. That makes the microscopic plants
very special, and potentially very useful, in reducing greenhouse
gases. On his laptop, Berzin shows me a video of the algae up close
and personal.
BERZIN: So, what you're going to see on the screen now is a
microscopic view of the algae. Belly dancing around, they have a
little mustache. They touch each other with the mustaches.
GELLERMAN: So, this is a plant? It's a one-celled plant?
BERZIN: Algae are the fastest growing plants on Earth. Their
doubling time is measured in hours. My kids ask me, 'oh Daddy it's so
cute. It's like pets. So, what do you do with them in the end?' I say,
'uh oh, I burn them.'
GELLERMAN: Berzin grows algae because they're super rich in oil. In
some species, oil accounts for half the little creature's body mass.
In fact, algae synthesize 30 times more vegetable oil per acre than
plants like sunflowers or rapeseed. The algae biodiesel can be used to
run engines, or converted into methane or fermented into alcohol. And
here's the best part: algae eat carbon dioxide for breakfast, lunch
and dinner. And one thing the global warming world has too much of is
CO2 from fossil fuel burning power plants.
GELLERMAN: Not far from his office, Berzin takes me to his algae
laboratory. It's outside on the roof of MIT's 20 kilowatt power plant.
A yellow brick smokestack towers overhead, and some of the power
plant's exhaust is fed through a row of Plexiglas tubes. Inside, the
gooey green algae feed on the CO2 and NOX, nitrogen oxide.
GELLERMAN: Can you describe what we are looking at? It looks like,
I don't know, water gurgling through a bunch of tubes.
BERZIN: Actually, in professional terms it's called a bioreactor.
It's nothing but three tubes connected together with some sea water
and algae in them. And you can see the bubbles bubbling through the
system. And you can kind of look at the bubble and follow it, and in
the ten seconds or so that the bubbles are spending in the bioreactor
80 percent of the CO2 is moved and 85 percent of the NOX. And at the
end of the day you harvest the algae, whatever was growing during the
day, you take out of the system. It's like a cow you milk it and you
make biofuels from the algae.
GELLERMAN: So, you're a farmer, you're a high-tech farmer.
BERZIN: Yeah, that's exactly the point. It's really, really a new
age of farming.
GELLERMAN: Granted, this prototype is just small potatoes. But,
theoretically, if you created an algae bioreactor twice the size of
New Jersey, you could supply the entire petroleum needs of the U.S.
The motto for Berzin's company is "waste not, profit more."
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Algae tubes stand alongside a smokestack. (Photo:
Ashley Ahearn)
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BERZIN: We believe that if you want to make an environmental
revolution it should not come as the law. Okay? It should come as a
great business. And if it's a great business, it has life of its own.
So, you don't come to the power industry and tell them, 'you guys are
the worst polluters and I have to shut you down. I have to fine you
for every...like a carbon tax, whatever.' I think that's the wrong
approach. I think the right approach would be, 'guys, you're throwing
all this CO2 away? Are you crazy? Let's make more money.' And that's
how the world will change. That's how it will become a reality.
GELLERMAN: So, I was taught, you know, if it sounds too good to be
true it usually is. What am I missing?
BERZIN: I'll tell you what the problem is. You have to produce
algae in a cost that will be cheap enough to compete with fossil
fuels. Then you think, 'wait a minute, what does this technology
need?' It needs land, and you need water, and you need CO2. So, CO2 is
not an issue. You're located next to a CO2 generating facility. Water,
you get to use any quality of water. Treated sewage water, brackish
water, ocean water, any water available. The third thing is, the land,
usually near these big power plants, no one wants to live. It's
non-fertile land. Nothing grows there even. So, you don't really
compete with agriculture. So, how realistic this is? We believe it is
realistic.
GELLERMAN: Isaac Berzin...founder and chief technology officer of
Greenfuel Technologies Corp. You can see for yourself if algae are
pond scum or planet savers; check out our web site: loe dot org.
Corn = net
81 gallons bio-diesel / acre
vs. Soy = net 41 gallons / acre
vs.
ALGAE = up to 15,000+ gallons / acre
|
T. Boone Pickens Algae Blog Thread: As for production, in
theory we can get up to
100,000
gallons per acre, though that will take around 10 years,
however 10,000 gallons an acre is currently being achieved through
open pond systems. |
R-Squared Energy Blog:
http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2006/03/biodiesel-king-of-alternative-fuels.html
Biodiesel can be produced from crops, such as soybeans. The
reported EROI for biodiesel from soybeans is 3.2(2). Note
that this is over double the EROI for ethanol, and that
doesn’t even account for the higher efficiency of the diesel
engine. Soybeans yield about 40 bushels per acre, which
translates into around 60 gallons of biodiesel per acre.
This is far short of the 350 gallons or more of ethanol that
can be produced from an acre of corn, but we have to take
into account the net energy produced. Given that the real
energy return of grain ethanol is around 1.3, it took the
energy equivalent of around 350/1.3, or 269 gallons of
ethanol to make the 350.
We netted out 81
gallons. For the soybeans, it took 60/3.2, or 19
gallons of biodiesel equivalent to produce the biodiesel,
for a
net of 41.
But recall that 1 gallon of biodiesel is worth 2.25 gallons
of ethanol when both are used in their respective engines,
so the biodiesel yield is "worth" 2.25*41, or 92 gallons of
ethanol. (Please note that these calculations are
approximate. If I were going to try to publish this
somewhere, I would convert everything into BTUs to calculate
the net yields.)
However, I do not wish to make the argument that we should
be making biodiesel from crops, unless we are doing so from
by-products left over from food production. Production of
biodiesel (or ethanol) from crops can’t make a significant
dent in our current usage of motor fuels. Fortunately, there
may be a better way. A couple of years ago, I ran across an
article that really caught my attention. It was my Reference
1
(http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html),
a report by Michael Briggs at The University of New
Hampshire. Briggs explained that biodiesel can be produced
from algae, at
yields as high as 15,000 gallons per acre! Briggs
did a number of calculations of the feasibility and cost of
replacing the entire motor fuel supply of the U.S. with
biodiesel. I checked his calculations and read his
references, and his analysis - based on experiments
conducted by NREL - appeared to me to be spot on. In his own
words, regarding the acreage that would be required:
In the previous section, we found that to replace all
transportation fuels in the US, we would need 140.8
billion gallons of biodiesel, or roughly 19 quads (one
quad is roughly 7.5 billion gallons of biodiesel). To
produce that amount would require a land mass of almost
15,000 square miles. To put that in perspective, consider
that the Sonora desert in the southwestern US comprises
120,000 square miles.
Enough biodiesel
to replace all petroleum transportation fuels could be
grown in 15,000 square miles, or roughly 12.5
percent of the area of the Sonora desert (note for
clarification - I am not advocating putting 15,000 square
miles of algae ponds in the Sonora desert. This
hypothetical example is used strictly for the purpose of
showing the scale of land required). That 15,000 square
miles works out to roughly 9.5 million acres - far less
than the 450 million acres currently used for crop farming
in the US, and the over 500 million acres used as grazing
land for farm animals.
It would be preferable to spread the algae production
around the country, to lessen the cost and energy used in
transporting the feedstocks. Algae farms could also be
constructed to use waste streams (either human waste or
animal waste from animal farms) as a food source, which
would provide a beautiful way of spreading algae
production around the country. Nutrients can also be
extracted from the algae for the production of a
fertilizer high in nitrogen and phosphorous. By using
waste streams (agricultural, farm animal waste, and human
sewage) as the nutrient source, these farms essentially
also provide a means of recycling nutrients from
fertilizer to food to waste and back to fertilizer.
Regarding the costs, he writes:
In "The Controlled Eutrophication process: Using
Microalgae for CO2 Utilization and Agircultural Fertilizer
Recycling", the authors estimated a cost per hectare of
$40,000 for algal ponds. In their model, the algal ponds
would be built around the Salton Sea (in the Sonora
desert) feeding off of the agircultural waste streams that
normally pollute the Salton Sea with over 10,000 tons of
nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers each year. The estimate
is based on fairly large ponds, 8 hectares in size each.
To be conservative (since their estimate is fairly
optimistic), we'll arbitrarily increase the cost per
hectare by 100% as a margin of safety. That brings the
cost per hectare to $80,000. Ponds equivalent to their
design could be built around the country, using wastewater
streams (human, animal, and agricultural) as feed sources.
We found that at NREL's yield rates, 15,000 square miles
(3.85 million hectares) of algae ponds would be needed to
replace all petroleum transportation fuels with biodiesel.
At the cost of $80,000 per hectare, that would work out to
roughly $308 billion to build the farms.
The operating costs (including power consumption, labor,
chemicals, and fixed capital costs (taxes, maintenance,
insurance, depreciation, and return on investment) worked
out to $12,000 per hectare.
That would equate
to $46.2 billion per year for all the algae farms, to
yield all the oil feedstock necessary for the entire
country. Compare that to the $100-150 (now $500-700) billion the US
spends each year just on purchasing crude oil from foreign
countries, with all of that money leaving the US economy.
I spent a lot of time reading through his references (some
are very long reports), and I could not understand why we
weren’t massively funding this research. It turns out that
NREL stopped funding the program in 1996. The reason remains
unclear to me, but this concept had given me hope that there
might be a viable alternative out there after all that
didn’t require us to turn all our forests into farmland. I
spent a lot of time wondering just how I could involve
myself in this area and contribute. I did e-mail Michael
Briggs and we had a nice discussion, and I came away
convinced that he knew what he was talking about. So why on
earth weren’t we all over this? Frankly, I still don’t know
the answer to that.
Biodiesel Plus Carbon Dioxide Recycle
Fast forward to 2006, and newspapers across the country picked up the
story that Isaac Berzin, of MIT, is using algae to quickly recycle
carbon in carbon dioxide rich exhaust stacks from power plants (3). What
a brilliant, brilliant idea! Why didn’t I think of that? By doing this,
he is able to double up on the benefits. First, the carbon dioxide gets
converted back into plant material instead of going directly into the
atmosphere. This would be a way of sequestering the carbon, provided the
algae was properly disposed of. The story reports:
Fed a generous helping of CO2-laden emissions, courtesy of the power
plant's exhaust stack, the algae grow quickly even in the wan rays of a
New England sun. The cleansed exhaust bubbles skyward, but with 40
percent less CO2 (a larger cut than the Kyoto treaty mandates) and
another bonus: 86 percent less nitrous oxide.
That alone is incredible. But that isn’t all:
After the CO2 is soaked up like a sponge, the algae is harvested
daily. From that harvest, a combustible vegetable oil is squeezed out:
biodiesel for automobiles. Berzin hands a visitor two vials - one with
algal biodiesel, a clear, slightly yellowish liquid, the other with the
dried green flakes that remained. Even that dried remnant can be further
reprocessed to create ethanol, also used for transportation.
One key is selecting an algae
with a high oil density - about 50 percent of its weight. Because this
kind of algae also grows so fast, it can produce 15,000 gallons of
biodiesel per acre. Just 60 gallons are produced from soybeans,
which along with corn are the major biodiesel crops today.
Now that’s ethanol I can live with. Finally:
For his part, Berzin calculates that just
one 1,000 megawatt power plant
using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel
and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year.
That would require a 2,000-acre "farm" of algae-filled tubes near
the power plant. There are nearly 1,000 power plants nationwide with
enough space nearby for a few hundred to a few thousand acres to grow
algae and make a good profit, he says.
I hope this guy is extremely successful and makes a billion dollars. He
has the potential here to make a contribution to society that most of us
only dream about. As he himself said "This is a big idea, a really
powerful idea." I couldn’t agree with those sentiments more.
###
Click Here for full Michael Briggs article with:
ALGAE
vs. Hydrogen info
Special Thanks to
Michael Briggs, University of New Hampshire
Physics Department and Bio-Diesel
Group, for the information!
ALGAE RESEARCH & FUNDING
According to 1994 data, algae ponds 5-times the size of Colorado
would turn around global warming since algae multiplies so quickly
and produces so much oxygen per square foot.
While the U.S. government has enormous information that a fraction of
current U.S. farm land growing algae could easily replace foreign oil at
a fraction of the cost, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
stopped funding research into this in 1996. Since then there's been
almost NO U.S. government funding provided for what is probably our best
chance to reverse global warming. The independent researchers in America
are operating from private funds while inefficient options like corn and
hydrogen are promoted. (Other countries' governments may be properly
funding their algae research).
A network of researchers, each
providing $9000 to be a part of the "algae" network, have created
"International Network on Biofixation of Greenhouse Gases and CO2
Abatement with Microalgae." Their website gives this history
of commercial algae research:
"Microalgae cultures have been investigated as a source of renewable
fuels for almost fifty years. The initial concept was to grow algae in
municipal wastewaters, harvest the algal biomass and convert it to
methane fuel. By the 1980's the R&D emphasis shifted to microalgae
production in large-scale processes with fuels as the only outputs.
"In the mean-time, a microalgae food supplement production industry
developed, starting in the 1960’s in Japan for the production of
Chlorella, followed by development in the U.S., Taiwan, Australia, China
and other countries of production processes for Spirulina, Dunaliella
and recently, Haematococcus. At present, about 5 000 tons of food- and
feed-grade microalgae biomass are produced annually in large open pond
systems.

Typical Commercial Microalgae Production Facility, Kona, Hawaii. (This
one being 90 acres).
Note: green ponds culturing Spirulina and red ponds with Haematococcus
pluvialis.
(Courtesy of Cyanotech Corp.)
"A plant in Hawaii is using the flue gas from a small power plant to
supply the CO2, required in microalgae
production. Microalgae ponds are also extensively used in many
countries for wastewater treatment and at least one plant in
California is using the methane obtained from the harvested algal
biomass to produce electricity.
"The Microalgae Biofixation Network provides a structure and
mechanism by which expertise can be shared, critical mass reached and
research projects co-ordinated to help focus R&D efforts on the most
promising approaches towards practical applications."
There's much more info on Microalgae, and how much CO2 algae can
"capture" at the: "International Network on Biofixation of Greenhouse
Gases and CO2 Abatement with Microalgae"
http://www.co2captureandstorage.info/networks/Biofixation.htm
NAA -
National Algae Association
4747 Research Forest Dr., Suite 180
The Woodlands, Texas 77381
cecore@aol.com
Algae Commercialization:
Business Roundtable, Research, and Networking Forum
National Algae Association announces its Algae
Commercialization Business Plan, Research, and Networking Forum.
Algae oil
production companies, algae researchers and "algaeprenuers" will
present leading-edge technologies for commercialization of the new oil
on July 17th in The Woodlands, Texas. The NAA brings companies
and researchers together to share ideas and exchange information to
overcome technological hurdles and commercialize this fast growing
renewable fuel industry.
Current high oil prices, the collapse of food-for-fuel initiatives and
concerns about increased levels of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere
have all created awareness of the need for alternative fuel solutions.
Algae has emerged as one of the lowest cost feedstocks for the
biofuels and cellulosic industries. Algae is considered to be a
promising source of renewable oil which can be processed and refined
into a variety of transportation fuels.
Recent breakthroughs in pond development and closed end loop systems
put algae oil production companies on the leading-edge of the
renewable oil industry.
Some challenges:
a) identifying the best suitable algae
strains with the largest extraction rates.
b) standardizing photobioreactor (PBR)
technologies
c) developing new CO2 injection methods
d) monitoring nutrient levels for
efficient algae growth rates
e) finding cost effective oil extraction
methodologies
Algae can be refined to make biofuel, jet fuel, bio-gasoline and
cellulosic materials such as pharmacueticals, cosmetics, bioplastics
and green packaging.
Additional ALGAE & Other Info
The following variety of information is located on my
ALGAE NOTES
page. Some I've gathered. Some found me. Having an ALGAE 4 OIL website,
I get emails from people who want to share
their Algae information. Then there's the ALGAE thread on T. Boone
Pickens Energy Website.
Get "ALGAE 4 OIL" Info Out!
ALGAE is probably the best way to reduce
EXISTING CO2.
In 1994,
Daryl Kollman, founder of the blue-green algae company, Cell Tech, said:
"algae multiplies so quickly and produces so much oxygen per square foot
that ponds with a total surface area five times the size of Colorado
would be enough to start to reverse our growing CO2 problem."
His concept
was to have algae ponds worldwide on farms, with the algae converting
CO2 to O2, and continually plowing the algae into the soil for
fertilizer (putting over 60-some elements into depleted topsoil).
Enough biodiesel to replace all U.S. petroleum transportation fuels and
our dependence on all foreign oil sources could be grown in 15,000
square miles / approximately 9.5 million acres. Yet the U.S.
government is pushing the very explosive, expensive and
zero net energy Hydrogen
and almost equally inefficient Corn options.
The U.S. government
needs to quit looking at hydrogen and corn and begin massive and
wholesale funding and grants for algae. New state agri-business of
algae farms? Or grants for ocean farming?
Algae farms 5 times in size of the state of Colorado would begin to turn
around global warming. What about "algae farms" 10 times that size?
Converting CO2 into O2, reversing
global warming, reducing our dependence on foreign oil. And the
algae wouldn't only be used for fuel. Michael Briggs says the economics
are much better if you also use the protein from the algae as animal
feed or fertilizer.
The profit motive alone gives us reason to move forward quickly. What a
great opportunity
-------------- and --------------
Conservation/New Energy reduces "future" CO2
Algae reduces EXISTING CO2!
Pond
Scum Planet Saver?
Yes, if we take action!
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