Topic: Want alternative energy?

[Nemesis]

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"Right now we're using soybean oil, because canola is more expensive," Dommermuth adds. "Soybeans can give you 50 to 60 gallons of oil an acre compared to 75 to 125 gallons for canola, but algae is almost limitless because it grows so fast, so potentially you could get 10,000 gallons per acre."

Briggs estimates that the U.S. would require roughly 141 billion gallons of biodiesel to replace the 60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel and 120 billion gallons of gasoline now used in U.S. vehicles. The savings from not having to shift vehicles and fueling infrastructure to an entirely new type of fuel would easily favor biodiesel, which can comprise 20 percent of a mixture with petroleum diesel with no modifications to current diesel-powered vehicles whatsoever, and 100 percent with minor modifications, he says. Briggs also says that diesel engines are well suited for hybrid vehicles operating on both liquid fuel and electricity.

GreenFuel's technology was developed by founder and chief technology officer Isaac Berzin at MIT. The company has built a prototype plant on a rooftop at the institute that pumps greenhouse gas wastes from the school's 20-megawatt cogeneration plant through pipes containing a mixture of algae and water. The system has cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 82 percent while accelerating algae growth so that the associated biomass doubles in a couple of hours.

With its initial venture funding, GreenFuel has scaled that pilot project up to a three-acre bioreactor adjacent to an undisclosed utility power generation plant in the Southwest. The company hopes soon to announce plans for a large commercial installation covering hundreds of acres with its partner in the project or with another utility. GreenFuel also has teamed with energy giant NRG Energy to make further headway in recycling carbon dioxide using algae.

Meanwhile, biologists and other scientists are working to extend the already enormous value of algae as biomass. Tasios Melis, a professor of enzymology at the University of California at Berkeley, has created genetically modified strains of algae that speed growth rates of naturally occurring algae and increase its hydrocarbon content, which could boost the biodiesel yield of bioreactors from 10,000 gallons per acre to 20,000 gallons or more.

If it makes any sense to use corn as a feedstock for ethanol when you have one crop or maybe two a year, why not algae for biodiesel when you can harvest two or three crops a day?"

Add more genetic engineering to make an algae that is even easier to convert to biodiesel and efficiency should rise.

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

As great as these bio fuels are and stuff, I would still prefer that researchers focus more on Hydrogen powered cars. For one the waste product is only water and then that can be recycled back into Hydrogen. Nevertheless, anything that gets us more off oil and gas is a extremly good thing

[Nemesis]

Though I'm pro hydrogen it has some substantial problems that may take time to solve.

1/ hard to store
2/ leaks are very explosive
3/ it may be clean burning but generating it needs to be non or low polluting too.
4/ volume generation just is not available at a practical cost.
5/ conversion from a gasoline/diesel distribution and usage system will be difficult and expense

Algae based biodiesel may be able to bypass all of those and give farmers a new cash crop.