preview.tinyurl.com/5nw29d -> environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19826595.900-algae-oil-promises-truly-green-fuel.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
Advertising THIS is one biofuel that lives up to its green billing in more ways than one. It's an emerald-green crude oil, produced by photosynthesis in algae, which could fuel cars, trucks and aircraft - without consuming crops that can be used as food. "This product can go right into today's oil pipeline," claims Jason Pyle of Sapphire Energy in San Diego, California, which developed the fuel. He says the "green crude" is similar in quality to naturally occurring crude oil. It is produced as a by-product of photosynthesis by a genetically engineered strain of algae, housed in tanks of treated waste-water and exposed to sunlight. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have already been refined from the green crude, and the company aims to produce 10,000 barrels per day within five years.
From issue 2659 of New Scientist magazine, 10 June 2008, page 25 Comment subject Comment No HTML except lower case italic tags or lower case bold tags, please: <i> or <b> Your name Your email We need your email in case we need to contact you about the comment.
VIEW THREAD >> Emerald Oil By Pat O'green Sat Jun 07 10:54:56 BST 2008 Interesting, 10000 barrels is very little, what are theeconomics of the proocess like and why not much grander scales?
REPLY Emerald Oil By Alex Tue Jun 10 12:00:33 BST 2008 Which European country were you referring too I ask? Oh good, just had to check, couldn't be sure that you knew something from another country, being from the US and all.
REPLY Emerald Oil By Jd Tue Jun 10 23:57:24 BST 2008 Europe isn't a country because of the US. Otherwise, it would be called "Germany" or "The Soviet Union." On behalf of my dead grandfather and many others like him who sacrificed in WWII, not to mention our defense of Europe during the cold war, you are welcome, Euros.
REPLY Emerald Oil By Ecolivin Tue Jun 10 20:14:37 BST 2008 Is it necessary to act like such an ignorant judgemental prick? it's people like you that fuel the negative image the rest of the world holds of americans. I for one am typically ashamed to live here, and frustrated to be surrounded by people like you. Fact is, in order to curve this hike in oil prices AMERICANS have to reduce the amount of petroleum and petroleum based products in which they use. We take too much, think it's a right and argue instead of change when it doesn't go our way. Our country needs a wake up call, and this green way of creating fuel is good in it's own right, but it still just proves that we are trying to find a way to continue our wasteful ways instead of stopping them. Quite a rant, and mainly off topic, but in the end, your comment was uncalled for.
REPLY I Like It By Lindsay Tue Jun 10 15:58:12 BST 2008 I find this story quite encouraging. It is essentially a solar energy solution that produces a liquid fuel. Here is a link to a New York Times article about the same group.
However production costs are estimated to be at $20 per barrel at this time and presently there is no commercial production of this product outside of the lab. With a bit of luck those production costs can come down. The algae oil option has great potential as it does not require agricultural land otherwise used for food production though to compensate for the huge quantities of fossil fuel presently consumed equally huge areas of land would be required. The energy yield is way way higher than any other biofuel option and unlike conventional crop biofuels, algal oil production has the potential of being scaled up at an exponential rate as it is essentially solar energy. This property will be very important given the immanent onset of declining global oil production. The world really needs something like this to take its place.
By Peter Tue Jun 10 11:25:58 BST 2008 The question raises how much square meters are required to produce 1 barrel. With many emerging energy system this seams to get importand for example a nuclear reactor, has a small scale but high energy output. Windmills requires a massive amount of space and material to get the same output, now algea are bio energy and grow themselves but on what scale should we think here ?
By Clif Tue Jun 10 12:35:34 BST 2008 A news show explained that since the bacteria live on the surface of the water, the point is to maximize the surface area. Doing that with a pond would lead to big evaporation trouble. They explained that it might be better to go verticle with clear chambers of some sort.
By Phil Bailey Tue Jun 10 14:14:53 BST 2008 Vertical has got to be better as you'd obviously get the sun from any angle. It's obviously early days yet by the sounds of it, but very promising. Producing our own oil, naturally, with minimal environmental impact, and possibly even making use of human waste (if I read/understood correctly)...
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