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Renewable, carbon-neutral oil - from algae


  3. onechance
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This sounds like it has amazing potential!!!

It doesn't drive the price of any foods up, and it's supposedly carbon neutral.
Exciting times...
onechance

35 responses // Renewable, carbon-neutral oil - from algae

  • wow that looks like nyQuil
    -
    good info.
    meligrosa
  • You can make the same stuff from hemp, but by the time your great grand kids see this type of fuel available it will be way too late.
    Enjoy_Cannabis
  • I'm really hoping this is turns out to be a viable deal, I've been hearing about it for a few months now. So far it seems like the real deal if they can figure it all out.
    Kati_kat
  • i've heard a lot about using algae to make fuel & it seems like an excellent idea. the only thing i wonder is if we can use the bad algae that's been taking over a lot ecologically challenged bodies of water to make oil too???
    blackdaylight
  • I think i saw the begining of this project at CSU one or two years ago. I really hope this works
    earthhugger
  • I think that this is promising, but I also worry that it will delay the development of actual sustainable fuels.
    cwc_agent
    1 response to this
  • 3rd generation biofuel with no effects on the world food crisis. Sounds like the Sargasso Sea will be the next gold rush.
    drewsuf721
  • It does look like Nyquil! weird
    jubal
  • Sounds extraordinarily interesting and like you say, has high potential.
    The sky is probably the limit. The only problem these days is that certain entities in the world today have so much money and power that they tend to suppress most great ideas due to their excessive greed. Just like 20 and 30 mph for cars. How ridiculous. It's hasn't really improved in 50 years. We should all be getting 60 to 80 mph in virtually the same vehicles we drive and the technology has been there a long time, deep inside someone's vault.
    ObiaMan
  • ObiaMan, not trying to be too critical, but I believe you mean mpg not mph...

    anyway, it seems that if you can create the market for it with your own resources, how could they squash it...I wonder how much algae is available...what happens if you drink it..? Is it like spiralina..? If so, you could have a slash while topping up the tank...
    PlatoTacius
  • @onechance... yeah, i thought it was neat, too... especially when i linked to this...

    http://current.com/items/88926773_better_than_gasohol_n...

    and now, after reading this from the top link...

    "Ramping up to that level of production without killing the algae can be tricky, one expert said, and the environmental impact of green crude remain to be seen. Even if it is carbon neutral, the algal fuels will emit pollutants that contribute to smog and ozone, says Don Anair of the Union of Concerned Scientists."

    now i have to add Don Anair to my list of "No-It-Alls."
    http://www.plusaf.com/soapbox/no-it-alls.htm
    plusaf
    1 response to this
  • What a nice healthy dose of hope for humanity at the end of the day. Amazing! And speaking of "doses" that stuff in the photo looks like the smoothest shot of wheat-grass ever.
    Hawkmang
    3 responses to this
  • Algae the next jewel of the sea.

    If it works out this will be science fiction orgasm.
    J_Jammer
  • ...wheat-grass, switch-grass, what's the difference..? I'm, also, wondering if this would lead to the rape of the ocean algae...Mankind has a propensity for spoiling a good thing...
    recommended by  jubal
    PlatoTacius
    1 response to this
  • Hopefully this could also be beneficial in the marine ecosystem by reducing the size of Dead Zones throughout the world.

    In the case of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, "nitrogen and phosphorous enter the [Mississippi] river through upstream runoff of fertilizers, sewage, soil erosion, and animal wastes. Consequently, algae blooms considerably, the food chain is altered, and dissolved oxygen in the area is depleted." Thus we disturb these ecosystems by indirectly killing marine creatures, all because of our contamination.

    The picture shows the area of low oxygen levels.

    Here is a link for more info:
    http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/
    recommended by  jubal
    lxluigixl
    1 response to this
  • This is just ridiculous. There's a reason we're still powering our cars with primitive fossil fuels. Electric cars were designed and distributed (edit: AND RECALLED) in the late 80's (see: Who Killed the Electric Car?). Sure, Tesla Motors released an electric car this year but it's the price of a Ferrari and virtually impossible to get your hands on even if you do have the money to pay for it.

    These fossil fuels we're using are the only way the greedy oil companies can make their money. They are BLINDING the entire world by saying they have all these new forms of energy in the works (Hydrogen etc). These fossil fuels are also conveniently and efficiently destrying our planet as we know it.

    Electricity IS (and always will be) the answer to this so called 'Energy Crisis' and there's a reason why most people are too blind to even realize that.

    No matter what we do, or how hard we try. We will never see an affordable electric car because the people behind the curtain would never allow it. How would they make their money? Don't they have enough anyway?
    heatX
    1 response to this
  • Plato, it's called "patents" and they can be bought from the patenter for a price that would be very attractive to her and then put it in the vault and refuse to allow anyone else to duplicate the process in the same manner, thus, squashing it. Or they can kill a top person or two or put enough fear into you and your family that the project falls apart.
    I had a friend once, he's dead now, murdered, who worked for a long time altering carburetors and was getting nearly 50 miles to a gallon in his Chevelle. It was all confiscated from him, in the name of it was done using some company time and resources and was definitely threatened with his life.
    We have all the technology already, but huge money and profits will always win out in our capitalistic society, because the rules can always be manipulated or just changed through lobbyists.
    Look at the drug companies. Sure, they spend mountains of money on development, but then charge horrendous prices to hordes of people, thus making a filthy killing. It's all called "legal". You don't want to stimmy entrepaneurship, do you?????
    ObiaMan
    1 response to this
  • Green hash oil?!?!
    ObiaMan
  • algae for fuel use can be grown, (in labs or huge warehouses if you will), on shelves under controlled environments and would be replenished on a daily bases. no ocean raping needed
    shadowtrekker
    1 response to this
  • It is with great potential. But why is it that we aren't ending the crave for oil entirely. It's time for electrical potential to be realized.
    alexhansen
  • Plato, mankind spoils everything. I believe some people must think that's their job in life.
    ObiaMan
  • lxluigixl -
    That is definitely a major problem. I live down here fairly close to the mouth of the Mississippi and the fertilizer runoff problem is terrible. We have these algae blooms in the bayous and lakes that get way out of hand some years. More natural, organic means of farming should be encouraged to an extreme degree real soon. The oceans (gulfs, seas, bayou, streams) are like a persons kidneys. We can't go on destroying them, figuring they will heal themselves.
    ObiaMan
  • heatz -
    Exactly, don't they have enough? Evidently not!!! They wouldn't feel needed anymore and you know how those sensitive egos are. Maybe they're just devils disguised as humans.
    Yea, they've been close to a break through in all those alternatives for 50 years, but it's always about 10 more years and we will have it. Yea, right!!!
    It's basically up to us as individuals, but watch out, if you get too good at it, you'll be arrested for something and your lifestyle will be confiscated, legally of course.
    ObiaMan
  • @heatz and @ObiaMan....

    two years: plug-in hybrids. 75-100 mpg. toyota doesn't give a crap about Big Oil. the prius proves that.

    yeah, they used to "give 'em away"... at a loss, many claimed.

    today, at $4/gallon, they're back to a two-month wait, and no discounts... again. toyota NOT= dumb.

    want to find out why dreams of light rail and mass-transit don't work as well as you'd like...

    read this:
    http://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/c_d_staff/...

    no, you won't.
    plusaf
  • although it sounds like it may be a step in the right direction, if it is too good to be true it probably is. the problem with algae is that it is carbon neutral that means it doesn't offset any of the carbons we are emitting into our atmosphere and thus only making things worse while prolonging the inevitable; alternative fuels.

    if we were to shift our oil based economy to algae it would still cause as much if not more problems than we already have. At any rate if the consumption of oil continues it will thereby propell the rising degree of global warming. an oil based economy is a proponent to the destruction of our earth.

    if we use either or then as a result we will have more than our fair share algae coming out our ears. studies show that a rise in temperature is conducive to algae growing conditions and if this is so, imagine our oceans full of it; killing all of our aquatic life. the same thing happened to the dinosaurs and it will happen to us if we don't do something about it and fast.
    sk8bs55

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