Posted on 07/20/2006 11:09:05 AM PDT by presidio9
A Spanish company claimed on Thursday to have developed a method of breeding plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel.
Vehicle tests are some time away because the company, Bio Fuel Systems, has not yet tried refining the dark green coloured crude oil phytoplankton turn into, a spokesman said.
Bio Fuel Systems is a wholly Spanish firm, formed this year in eastern Spain after three years of research by scientists and engineers connected with the University of Alicante.
"Bio Fuel Systems has developed a process that converts energy, based on three elements: solar energy, photosynthesis and an electromagnetic field," it said in a press dossier.
"That process allows us to obtain biopetroleum, equivalent to that of fossil origin."
Phytoplankton, like other plants, absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. Scientists have examined the possibility of stimulating growth of the single cell plants as a means of reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
CO2, liberated by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, is widely held responsible for global warming.
Bio Fuel Systems said its new fuel would reduce CO2, was free of other contaminants like sulphur dioxide and would be cheaper than fossil oil is now.
"Our system of bioconversion is about 400 times more productive than any other plant-based system producing oil or ethanol," it said, referring to currently available biofuels made from plants like maize or oilseeds.
Bio Fuel Systems is working with scientists at the University of Alicante on the project. It has drawn up industrial plans to make the fuel and says it will be able to start continuous production in 14 to 18 months.
I wonder if this is anything like the Korean scientist who says he cloned a human?
And I can make a spaceship from soup.
Starve the whales.
Isn't plankton the dude from SpongeBob Squarepants show??
We already have a device that turns plankton into oil. It's called a whale...
Okay, yesterday we had a thread about bacteria that make(precipitate) gold. Now we have algae that make oil. We now need a lifeform that makes chocolate and all or problems will be solved......
Plankton is to oil what:
A: Screwdriver is to Lemonade
B: Liberal is to Liberty
C: Fruitloops is to Garage door opener
D: All of the above
Notify Greenpeace!
Save The Plankton!
"Starve the whales."
I'm all for that, usless blubber masses taking up space in the ocean, Besides that when they blow if you're within a hundred yards downwind hold your nose.
It will also get rid of the red tide that the enviros hate so much.
And evil as well..
You're right .. I forgot about that
"green coloured crude oil phytoplankton"
I think I saw something like this in a movie once, starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson.
Cocoa plants? Nah, that would be illegal. Unless you run the beans through a civit cat, and sell it at starbucks...
All oil originally comes from saltwater algae so this is not far fetched, is actually step one of the process. All coal comes from freshwater plants.
The open ocean is 70% of Earth's solar energy absorbing surface, and most of it is underemployed. The main problem with using the open ocean vs. using saltwater ponds is algae species contamination, and the higher cost of piping extra CO2 in to make the algae grow.
The Japanese said they could extract oil from steer manure. Maybe we could rig our sewage treatment plants to extract oil from human turds.
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