Algae.

[Flying Binghi]

PetroAlgae is commercializing new technologies designed to grow and harvest oil from algae. This process creates a sustainable, renewable, cost-effective substitute for petroleum oil and a reliable, environmentally-friendly feedstock source for biodiesel and many other products. The Melbourne, Florida-based company offers a path to sustainable, renewable and carbon-neutral energy independence with processes that are environmentally-friendly.

I dunno ...when i read the parts in bold my 'bull-shite' metre goes off scale.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Flying Binghi

I dunno ...when i read the parts in bold my 'bull-shite' metre goes off scale.

Yes, agreed, sounds more like a prospectus than a news report.

So many scientific reports/announcements are made 5-10 years out from any market reality.
I guess it keeps the funding coming.

A sceptical view of the year in science:-

1) 15 Algae Startups Bringing Pond Scum to Fuel Tanks:
This algae primer featured over a dozen startups trying to crack the algae-to-fuel code and was the big winner of the year, in terms of both page views and comments.
While other non-food forms of ethanol — from switchgrass to plant waste — seemed to stall in 2008, the idea of algae fuel moved up in the ranks, and Googlers looked for which companies will lead the algae race.
Or maybe readers liked the Britney Spears reference. Who knows.

http://earth2tech.com/2008/12/30/top...ories-of-2008/

Some other reports I just came across
Algae in the Air: 5 Startups Turning Algae Into Jet Fuel
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/..._jet_fuel.html

Is Fuel Produced from Algae the Next Generation of Biofuels?

http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelea...etail&ID=24550

[Michaelangelica]

An intersting article on where the money is comming from to reseach and develop algae as a fuel etc.

In one of the most memorable moments in cinema, a middle-aged businessman whispers to a young and perplexed Dustin Hoffman one word of advice: “Plastics.”

In a 21st-century remake, the word might one day be algae.

Plastic was the new gold when The Graduate was filmed in the 1960s. In the summer of 2008, as oil prices soared to frightening levels, dozens of little companies managed to bring in a sudden gusher of funding for a technology that has long been relegated to the fringe of alternative energy: turning the green scum that grows in ponds and waterways into fuel.

In just six months, investors pledged more than $1 billion to 30 or 40 algae-fuel companies, many of them new. Now with oil prices less than half of what they were in the summer, the fledgling algae industry isn’t likely to see more big investments anytime soon, and the credit squeeze will also hamper development. But the companies hope they’ve raised enough cash to move the technology to the next step and prove that the watery weed can be a viable alternative to petroleum.

The fact is, algae contains an abundance of natural fatty oils that don’t need much refining to power cars and jets

Algae-as-Alternative-Fuel-Source - Science Column - David Ewing Duncan - Natural Selection - Portfolio.com
All on one page?
Algae-as-Alternative-Fuel-Source - Science Column - David Ewing Duncan - Natural Selection - Portfolio.com

[Michaelangelica]

Can geo-engineering rebuild the planet?

Supporters of another approach, known as Oceanic Iron Fertilisation, believe that promoting the growth of algae should be our main objective, rather than just a side effect. According to Dr Victor Smetacek, of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, the theory is that adding iron to the oceans will encourage algal blooms. When the algae die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean, locking away their cargo of carbon.

There are plans to test this proposal off the island of South Georgia in the Atlantic. At the very least, Dr Smetacek hopes that large blooms of algae will act as food for krill, helping resurrect declining populations of squid and even some whales.

Can geo-engineering rebuild the planet? - Telegraph
Interesting article.

Second generation ethanol is not the end of ethanol’s evolutionary train. By 2030, the world will be much closer to commercializing fuel made from algae than they are today. Countless pilot projects are springing up everywhere; closed-loop algae ponds that absorb factory emissions, algae smokestack filters, genetically modified extra-oily algae that releases hydrogen while it grows… this is the next generation of ethanol.

Energy Examiner: New study paves path for sustainable second generation biofuels

[JMJones0424]

Ok, algae receives it's nutrients from an aqueous solution, and that solution is relatively easy to maintain, but the transfer of atmospheric carbon to an aqueous solution is not easy. It requires aeration, and in the process, you lose or gain heat energy, depending on the difference in temperature between water and air. Wouldn't it be more effective to focus on plants that receive carbon directly from the atmosphere and other nutrients from water, like duckweed? I haven't done any specific experiments, but I know that duckweed can multiply at an extremely fast rate. And while the production area is limited to the surface area of the body of water you are using, is it not possible that the more efficient capture of atmospheric carbon could be a reason to look at top of the water organisms for capture and sequestration of atmospheric carbon?

[Michaelangelica]

OriginOil achieves rapid algae oil extraction

By Susanne Retka Schill


OriginOil Inc. is making progress towards reducing the cost of harvesting algae and extracting the oil in a rapid, one-step process
In the past several months, OriginOil has combined its ultrasound-based Quantum Fracturing process with pH modification and electromagnetism.
“In a single step you can extract the oil and get the biomass and oil to separate spontaneously shortly afterward,” he explained.
. . .
With “breakthroughs” being announced weekly by the multiple companies developing algae technology, Eckelberry admits healthy skepticism is in order. “It’s a dot.com environment right now, and it’s going to take a while for it all to sort out,” he said. He advises observers to follow the announcements, and “see how it settles out.” Eckelberry is an advocate of sharing information and progress, while respecting the need to protect proprietary information. He will be speaking at the quarterly forum of algae entrepreneurs on April 30 organized by the National Algae Association. OriginOil’s chief technology officer Vikram Pattarkine will be speaking at Algae World on April 27-28 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

For earlier articles about OriginOil in Biodiesel Magazine see “OriginOil presents at algae conference” and “Origin automates algae system”

OriginOil achieves rapid algae oil extraction - Biodiesel Magazine