High Octane Fuel From Algae Within 18 Months?
Targeted Networking – Melbourne Mini Expo
July 1, 2008Hydrogen Fuel Cells For Honda, Toyota And London Cabs
July 2, 2008How? Check out this US film clip sent to PWF this week…amazing stuff to a non-scientific mind. Coincidentally this weekend’s Australian newspaper published a section on Sustainable Investment (29-30 June 2008) reporting:
“An Australian Company may be the first in the world to comercialise an algae bioreactor that can strip carbon dioxide emissions from the flues of coal-fired power plants and convert them into high quality diesel for cars…
Peter Edwards of the Victor Smorgan Group (VSG), a privately-owned company with a 75 year history of manufacturing and re-cycling, says he is on the verge of moving from a laboratory-scale trial to a pilot project. The trial has been operating at Hazelwood power station in Victoria…
“We have just got the pilot project up and running in January, and if it performs according to expectations we could go into commercial production in 18 months.”
Algae bioreactors could be installed at any plant that produces carbon emissions such as a brewery or ethanol plant.
Greenhouse Gas Abatement And Energy Independence
Algae bioreactors have the ability to convert up to 85% of carbon dioxide emissions into oxygen using the simple and natural process of photosynthesis…all living plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, but the difference with algae is that it grows much faster and and thrives in a carbon dioxide rich stream of emissions…
VSG has licensed the experimental technology from GreenFuel Technology, a company based in the US and which has more than a dozen pending patents on its algae bioreaction systems…
Another Benefit
Residual protein left over after the oil has been extracted can be converted into fishmeal or other feed for livestock…Fishmeal sells for $1200 a tonne…even more than the price of biodiesel. Algae doesn’t compete with food sources, it creates them.”
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3 Comments
Work on this is going on like mad all around the world.
There are a myriad of different ways and species being tested. Who knows which one will be the winner. Some make diesel some make petrol some make nearly all oils except for heavy crude.
Try these sites for more:
http://www.petrosuninc.com/algae-biofuels.html
http://www.originoil.com/originoil/originoil-home.
http://www.greenstarusa.com/index.html
I continue to be amazed – never heard of this before, thanks for the links Merv.
This is going on around the place, unfortunately those pointing to it as a solution to fuel is muddying the waters. Creating enough of the stuff to provide for our insatiable appetite for energy is easier said than done. If you give arm a politician or a skeptic with that information they run away with it and chuck this solution in the rubbish. It’s important to understand all the benefits in tandem (fuel, soaking up CO2 and meal) to get a real appreciation for the benefits. Of course, it helps if “big industry” isn’t in your pocket….