Someone sent me an article on the July 18th about this now I'm ticked that I missed out on the ATS points by not starting a thread myself. I guess I'll give me some points now.

Assuming there's no hyperbole here this is the sort of thing that needs to happen. It sounds too good to be true somehow though. What's the catch? How much energy is needed for the constant water circulation and other requirements per year? How much energy is in the biofuel produced per year? The net product has to be substantial.

If we can be the algae nation and export this stuff too then go for it.

Originally posted by EnlightenUp


How much energy is needed for the constant water circulation and other requirements per year? How much energy is in the biofuel produced per year? The net product has to be substantial.

If we can be the algae nation and export this stuff too then go for it.

I would wager they can run the entire system via solar power or from future oil produced.

50% of this particular algae is oil that is really huge. So far I see no downside.

I read about this a couple years ago in a book called "Out of Gas" which gave the same 20,000 gal/acre figure. It's exciting considering other sources struggle to get in the triple digits. I wish I could find the darn book for the comparisons it gives.

I believe the author wrote about how the water using the grow the algae could double as a reservoir - evaporation would be reduced by the algae cover. The waste product could also used to power the processing.

If it reduces our foreign dependence even if it wouldn't reduce our usage of fuel, I'm all for algae! (but not in our ponds...)

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
... It sounds too good to be true somehow though. What's the catch? How much energy is needed for the constant water circulation and other requirements per year? How much energy is in the biofuel produced per year? ...

If it's in New Mexico, who cares how much energy is needed? It can be supplied by solar!

the concept i like behind this is that, technically petroleum would become a green fuel source.
For those that don't understand me, the algea would absorb the carbon in the air and place it into the hydrocarbons. After that we burn it and make fuel for the algea to make our fuel again and on..... I truely hope to see this tech on the market soon.

Nice,

I have a big algae pond, I want to know how to process this!

And where to get the "right" kind of algae to produce diesel fuel.

Originally posted by sir_chancealot

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
... It sounds too good to be true somehow though. What's the catch? How much energy is needed for the constant water circulation and other requirements per year? How much energy is in the biofuel produced per year? ...

If it's in New Mexico, who cares how much energy is needed? It can be supplied by solar!

Since it takes 746 Watts per HP and running water pumps on a large farm will definitely take many HP worth of pumps. Of course some solar input to run the plant would be used; it would be foolish not to. There would be times it would have to draw off the grid or use on on site generator.

The plus that the energy density per acre is 100 to 200 times greater than other methods of obtaining biofuels assuming similar BTUs per unit mass in the fuels.

What I want to hear is a net output per acre and not a gross output per acre. This means to subtract from the gross the number of gallons of fuel that represent the energy input to the plant required to grow the algae.

The efficiency of that plant would be %Eff = 100*Enet/Egross. The question is is it positive (and is must be highly so), zero or negative?

With claims like this I like to see some simple calculations that tell more about the viability of the technology than the hype ever will.

Sounds promising, but good luck competing with the Rockefeller gang. Looks like quite an investment to start up a high tech operation, but with all the 'cattle tanks' (large ponds) in the state of Texas that go unused now, we could probably start growing our own oil in no time. I sure would like to know how the algae is processed into oil.

I work in bio diesel... and, honestly it's the future...

I don't know prices at the pump but...shale and corn hover at 5.65 a gallon and jatropha runs about 5.05

the rockerfellers will buy into whatever comes up... it's about $ at the pump and the change comes soon... just the way it is...

good thread!

Algae fuel sounds great, but it sounds like your still guna be having to go to the pump and pay for your fuel.

I want to fill my tank once and thats it. I don't wana have to refuel many times over. I would rather have a closed system that could be controled through hydrogen, because water is much easier to obtain then algae. So, in my opinion, its inefficient and needs to be rethought. Hydrogen is best due to its renewablity from its emissions, basically fill up once and never fill again.

Though jet fuel from hydrogen is completely different, maybe something algea would be good for.

The thought of having algae as fuel makes me wonder how much algae is in Florida's swamps and if theres been any recent purchases.


[edit on 17-8-2008 by Quickfix]