16 year old girl makes bio-fuel from algae in her parent's garage with no chemicals!

reply to post by daryllyn


I still have slight faith in humanity when I read these kinds of stories.

Great article! Star and flag!

-SAP-

If i had 1 hour free time in school everyday to do something like this, I would probably get expelled/suspended, and end up paying fines and maybe juvy/jail time.

Originally posted by daryllyn
I love seeing innovations from young people...

I'm not ageist, I love seeing innovations from anyone of any age.

But after having read her report, as opposed to the media reporting of it, its not at all clear what her "innovations" actually are.

She compared her home method with "industry standards", but thats not a fair comparison for many reasons. Mostly the same as any hobbyist at home doing anything doesnt have to worry about time efficiency, cost efficiency, issues with doing things on industrial scales, supply chains, consistent results, contamination, efficacy, supply fulfilment according to contracts...and so forth.

But more importantly, it seems that her project is just trying things that have been done and published before, as she states many times, quite openly.

The use of bioreactors to cultivate algae is supported by years of research.
A study conducted by Montana State University found that ....
researchers are testing methods that include...
Recently, alternative methods have been explored wherein ...

reply to post by alfa1


The media spinning a story into something it's not.....stop the presses!!

Regardless, it's pretty cool she did it because it's some advanced organic chemistry stuff.

I hope she open sourced the patent, for that is the only responsible thing any inventor should do, ensure that it belongs to the people forever.

Good for her, even if its not completely 'original'. Anything to get rid of the real stranglehold of oil and its owners.

I am sick to death that we ever became this reliant on it and it byproducts and the way it is used to manipulate the world today. We would have ultimately found other means of producing our needs.

reply to post by alfa1

I'm not ageist, I love seeing innovations from anyone of any age.

I'm not an ageist either.

What I meant by that, was that seeing these kinds of accomplishments from the younger generations gives me hope for the future. I didn't mean to imply that I only like innovations from younger people and I'm not exactly sure why you would assume that.

That's one thing I can't stand about this place anymore. People feel the need to take what you didn't say or specify and twist around to make it seem like you are saying something that you are not.

Also, even if she is not the first to engineer such a project, she is still quite an amazing and accomplished young lady.

Going over the notes, it's a high energy extraction process. 40 bars a pressure (580PSI) and warmed to 255 degrees, while being treated with and ultrasonic bath. You loose almost all your gains in the process unless you find a way to do it in such a scale to almost break even.

Still I tip my hat to the kid, she done a bang up job. Even if its not workable right now does not mean we won't figure a way to make it so, based of this info.

Originally posted by LeatherNLace
Cool story, cool science project, but innovative it is not. There are companies, as well as private citizens, in the US that have been producing bio-fuel with algae for years.

Algae farm:

Nevertheless, S&F

edit on 19-6-2013 by LeatherNLace because: (no reason given)

My parent HAD a million dollar lawsuit coming to them and I was organizing a small bio-fuel production plant, for their deisel trucks. Not new, but still awesome!

I remember reading something that correlated the huge marine life die-offs that are happening with biofuel. It was saying that the powers that be were createing dead zones in the ocean with corexit, because it creates algae, which they plan on using for biofuel. Don 't remember where I read that though.

Originally posted by daryllyn
I hope she got the necessary patents, as well. I would hope that her parents would have made certain that was taken care of prior to the science fair that she won.

I'm expecting to see big things from this girl! That's quite an accomplishment at only 16 years old. She one of America's best and brightest for sure!

Ya know.. i doubt they did.. i mean.. why would they if they simply looked at this as another school science project. She says, " if you use my process" .. is it posted online anywhere.. surly the science project is open for all to see and examine. How could it not be.. it's a school project.

Originally posted by LeatherNLace
Cool story, cool science project, but innovative it is not. There are companies, as well as private citizens, in the US that have been producing bio-fuel with algae for years.

Algae farm:

Nevertheless, S&F

edit on 19-6-2013 by LeatherNLace because: (no reason given)

Friggin' awesome. Thanks for the detailed response.

Originally posted by AnonLover

Originally posted by LeatherNLace
Cool story, cool science project, but innovative it is not. There are companies, as well as private citizens, in the US that have been producing bio-fuel with algae for years.

Algae farm:

Nevertheless, S&F

edit on 19-6-2013 by LeatherNLace because: (no reason given)

My parent HAD a million dollar lawsuit coming to them and I was organizing a small bio-fuel production plant, for their deisel trucks. Not new, but still awesome!

In THIS post it says they are using solvents But the girl claims she didn't use Any chemicals - I want to know what the difference is between the above and her method.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix

In THIS post it says they are using solvents But the girl claims she didn't use Any chemicals - I want to know what the difference is between the above and her method.

Solvent:
1. Chemistry
a. A substance in which another substance is dissolved, forming a solution.

A solvent could be something as simple as water; which most of the bio-fuel companies use. (notice in the diagram it shows the "solvent" evaporating into the environment)