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Page added on September 6, 2012
US Department of Energy: Algae-to-Fuels
As America takes steps to improve our energy security, home-grown fuel sources are more important that ever. One of the fuel sources of the future is algae, small aquatic organisms that convert sunlight into energy and store it in the form of oil. Scientists and engineers at the Energy Department and its national laboratories are researching the best strains of algae and developing the most efficient farming practices. This edition of Energy 101 shows how oil is extracted from algae and refined into sustainable biofuels.
28 Comments on "US Department of Energy: Algae-to-Fuels"
Arthur on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 11:16 am
The future energy base will be a very diverse one. Algae could certainly play a role.
DC on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 12:06 pm
Bio-fools. Throw billions at unproven tech, as opposed to simply (re)-building our rail networks and stop zoning for car-sprawl. But no, got to keep the cars running by some other means, and JHK would say. One thing the bio-fools scammers never mention, is just how much algae, corn whatever would have to be grown to ‘feed’ a billion gas-burners. How much energy? How much money? How much water? How much land? They always say, well grow it on the desert or ‘marginal’ lands. What is marginal land anyhow? Stuff we havent paved over, your back yard? I guess deserts are good bet since soil erosion probably means a desert is headed somewhere to a location near you.
BillT on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 12:28 pm
Tech dreams will not change the reality that we will be using less and less energy as time goes on. ALL these dreams are based on OIL. Take oil out of the equation and they will NOT exist.
Build and maintain those farms without any OIL or NG energy input, and process and distribute the resulting fuel/energy WITHOUT oil or NG and I will be impressed. Bet they cannot do it.
TIKIMAN on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 12:53 pm
I love how it takes ELECTRICITY to create this pond scum. Not to mention the millions of millions tons of fossil fuels needed to create the massive pond scum farms. Just like hydrogen, it is a joke.
P.S. None of this will matyter when Obama bankrupts this country and the darkies A.K.A food stamp people, loose their benefits.
Arthur on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 1:01 pm
Nobody claims that algae are going to provide a plug and play solution for our energy problems. Things will never be like they used to be, at least not as long as we merely have wind, solar and algae at our disposal. But dismissing a potential viable option because technology is involved is not good enough. The goal must be: save as much as possible of our civilizational accomplishments, it is going to be less than we were used to anyway. Happy motoring will be a thing of the past, but we can still use biofuel for transport of goods. Algae can be produced in formerly useless deserts like the Sahara with salty mediterrainian water.
Arthur on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 1:04 pm
Algae are not comparible to hydrogen. Algae are a source, where hydrogen is merely storage.
Kenz300 on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 1:41 pm
Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.
The price of oil, coal and nuclear keep rising while the cost of wind and solar keep dropping.
Second generation biofuels can now be made from waste or trash. Every landfill can be converted to produce biofuels, energy and recycled raw materials for new products. This is more sustainable than burying the waste and the inputs to the process are inexpensive since they are already being collected.
Arthur on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 1:45 pm
Tikiman, on the plus side algae can double in mass within 3-4 hours, where a rotting dinosaur takes millions of years to convert into something which you use to drive to Dolly’s Inn… I mean Walmart.
Arthur on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 3:07 pm
On the other hand, who cares about pond scum if the amount of oil on eart is nearly infinite. The Natzi’s said so themselves.lol
http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Oil-Conspiracy-ebook/dp/B007VDECJ4/
Siddhartha on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 4:25 pm
reading this comment thread i’m reminded that once a certain crowd of people is convinced “THE END IS NIGH!” all attempts to tell them that it’s not will fall on deaf ears. they want their apocalypes, damn it! and they want it now!
Newfie on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 5:02 pm
“they want their apocalypes, damn it! and they want it now!”
They’re getting it. Read the news. Greece is bankrupt. Spain is circling the drain. Italy is crumbling. France and Britain will be next. Then the malaise will cross the Atlantic. The financial crisis can be traced back to the peaking of conventional oil production in 2005. Oil prices spiked in 2008 and pow! there was a crash. Oil prices are now too high to sustain growth. The economy is disintegrating. The apocalypse is unfolding gradually. Savour it, enjoy it.
Arthur on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 5:22 pm
Siddhartha, think of all the money you can save on all these desaster movies. This one comes for free, albeit without Dolby Surround. You can still bring your popcorn!
BillT on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 6:30 pm
Newfie, you are correct. Oil will not matter when the financial system collapses. Nothing moves without a financial system that functions EVERYWHERE. Wells don’t get drilled. Ponds don’t get built for scum. Windmills, etc, do not get made and installed. You will not even eat if the system goes down unless you grow it yourself.
Science sans conscience on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 6:35 pm
DC on Thu ->>>
Bio-fools. Throw billions at unproven tech, as opposed to simply (re)-building our rail networks and stop zoning for car-sprawl.
———————
This is not possible in your country as public transportation is too dangerous due to high crime and rampant incivility, and that’s why nearly all Americans prefer to live in the suburbs.
It’s not a criticism but an observation. You are not safe everywhere in Europe either. So I will drive until there’s no oil left, and then I will bike, but I won’t ride the bus.
Rick on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 6:44 pm
This video is pure propaganda.
Kenjamkov on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 6:46 pm
Did Tikiman call a group of people “darkies” and nobody said anything?
Not everyone on food stamps has a dark complexion.
Just a bit of racism there Tiki.
Hawkcreek on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 10:14 pm
Nobody said anything about the “darkies” comment because everyone is starting to realize you can’t fix stupid.
Norm on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 10:25 pm
Algae is slime. Congress is slime. This is why Congress is funding Algae.
Norm on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 10:26 pm
Everybody is ignoring what Tikiman said, because he should not have said it. That type of thinking went out with the 1950’s, well, unless you are with the Tea Party.
Norm on Thu, 6th Sep 2012 10:34 pm
Video is just a bunch of cheerleader hype. They aren’t generating enough energy to even turn their own paddle wheels. Its common knowledge that the effective algae farming is NOT done in lagoons or open water. Its done in plastic curtains. This also avoids the solution being taken over by an invasive incorrect species of algae. So why these guys foolin around with paddle wheels and raceways? Cause they all on welfare. Government pays each researcher $125,000 a year. Wouldn’t you like that salary? Of course you would, to play around with pumps and pipes. Who cares that it will never make enough oil to run a car, as long as the welfare paychecks are good.
DC on Fri, 7th Sep 2012 1:44 am
Our corporate welfare rulers insistence that the future has too look exactly like the past, IE cars everywhere, is what is going to doom us all. We cant afford to keep cars, and we cant afford to keep funding techno-fanatasies trying to keep them powered.
Trains-work
Bikes-work
Cities designed for humans-not cars-would work, if we actually built them that way.
Cars-Fail, and so do bio-fools.
MrEnergyCzar on Fri, 7th Sep 2012 3:38 am
What’s the real EROEI for this? Anyone know?
MrEnergyCzar
Harquebus on Fri, 7th Sep 2012 4:41 am
Population reduction, proper management of resources and consumption with reforestation on a massive scale are the only things we can and must do. Everything else is rubbish.
Arthur on Fri, 7th Sep 2012 5:54 am
DC, you are correct, but even following your recommendations, society will need fuel for these trains and elementary production processes, when finally fossil fuel runs out. That’s where these algaes could come in.
Stephen on Fri, 7th Sep 2012 8:30 am
I am not sure Algae fuel can replace oil in enough quantities but it must be tried. Algae can make more fuel per acre than soybeans, corn, or other farm crop based biofuels. We may have peaked in oil production but it will be a long time before we get to the last drop.
I am convinced that we could make a few more decades of a quality life if we implemented strategies like energy conservation, reduced driving, more use of trains, flexed work hours, grew food locally, and assembled and repaired goods locally, and scaled up renewable energy (solar, wind, ocean wave motion, and alternative liquid fuels like algae fuel, ammonia fuel, and high EROEI crop biofuels in limited quanities (for example, Brazil was smarter by using Sugarcane over corn).
BillT on Fri, 7th Sep 2012 2:22 pm
All of you techies who expect to have most of your way of life preserved by technology are in for a shock. Cannot happen. Why? Think about it with an open mind.
Think about how/where all of the support comes from. Most everything starts in a mine or a well. Those sources require oil to be profitable on the scale needed for 7+ billion of us. Millions of tons of ores are mined every year to make your Western lifestyle possible. Not possible with algae or any other man made energy source.
All we can do is use what falls on the earth more efficiently, but down-sizing of life is required for even that to be successful. A huge amount of down-sizing for western developed countries. Not so much for 3rd world countries.
Netspiker on Sun, 16th Sep 2012 6:43 am
Growing algea for biofuel would cost more energy and precious water resources. Just thinking about that 80% or more of algea is water and every step of operation would need energy to move.
By comparison to algea, reforestation would provide much more biomass resources at much more cost effective way, in addition of much better outcome of environment and weather impact. There is a revolutionary technology of biomass to biofuel (syngas or electricity), microwave plasma arc gastrification, with zero emission and pollution. Harvesting and transporting the biomass from forests don’t need the huge investment for mechanization required for efficiency. On another hand, forests need irrigation to fast growth and maintain healthy. There is advanced dripping irrigation with proof of evidence, which utilizes 1% of water used by conventional ones to achieve the same effect of irrigation.
Netspiker on Sun, 16th Sep 2012 6:46 am
Growing algea for biofuel would cost more energy and precious water resources. Just thinking about that 80% or more of algea is water and every step of operation would need energy to move.
By comparison to algea, reforestation would provide much more biomass resources at much more cost effective way, in addition of much better outcome of environment and weather impact. There is a revolutionary technology of biomass to biofuel (syngas or electricity), microwave plasma arc gastrification, with zero emission and pollution. Harvesting and transporting the biomass from forests don’t need the huge investment in mechanization required for efficiency. On another hand, forests need irrigation to fast grow and maintain healthy. There is advanced dripping irrigation with proof of evidence, which utilizes 1% of water used by conventional ones to achieve the same effect of irrigation.