Marine algae get the green light from Shell

New Scientist ^ | 22 December 2007 | New Scientist

[Red Badger]

Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....

If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....

This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....

[griswold3]

Seriously, this is a positive trend towards sustainable renewable energy!!!

[r9etb]

A good “symbiotic” way to deal with sewage and garbage, too.

[SIDENET]

Marine algae get the green light from Shell

Way off topic, but wasn't Soylent Green supposed to be marine algae before it was found to be made from people?

[mvpel]

This is really great news! I wonder what their production costs are going to be. Hawaii’s a great place for a pilot too, since that means they save on trans-oceanic fuel shipping.

[Normandy]

Interesting development. If power plants are forced to sequester CO2, why not put it to use and grow algae with it?

[Normandy]

Interesting development. If power plants are forced to sequester CO2, why not put it to use and grow algae with it?

[isaiah55version11_0]

more info here

http://media.cleantech.com/2189/shell-to-grow-algae-for-biofuel

[Racehorse]

Good news for the Dutch.

[11th Commandment]

YEAAAA the SILVER Bullet to our energy/environmental crises.

But on second thought, even producing 15X as much bio fuel as we do today won't really make a dent in energy dependence.

And although the algae is grown from CO2, when algae diesel is compressed in a diesel engine with super heated 02, the byproduct is C02. So if you really want to reduce C02, shouldn't you just grow algae and leave it alone?

[Brad from Tennessee]

This is how to solve any problem—put a profit potential in the solution and let corporate America do it.

[Londo Molari]

“A good “symbiotic” way to deal with sewage and garbage, too.”

Finally a technology to make our Congress into something useful.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Good idea. Build the power plant and the algae farm/refinery next to each other and pipe the CO2 to the farm: perpetual motion.

[KarlInOhio]

So if you really want to reduce C02, shouldn't you just grow algae and leave it alone?

You can't just leave it alone. If left alone it will eventually die and rot, releasing CO₂ back into the air. You have to hide it somewhere where it can't rot.

However, if you are using the biodiesel instead of petroleum you will take carbon dioxide out of the air and later put it in, instead of just putting it into the air from a millions years old store of it.

[KarlInOhio]

perpetual motion.

It's not perpetual motion. You need sunlight to add to the total energy supply to grow the algae. Now whether it would be better to increase the amount of usable energy by using solar cells or algae-diesel, I don't know.

[isaiah55version11_0]

Joint press release here:

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=54866

[primatreat]

Al Gore.... what is he going to make a living at now? All that c02 being used for fuel.. Don’t trees eat it? Lordy, we can’t to that and starve the poor trees.. Al, we need you to protect the trees.....

[B-Chan]

Leaving the algae alone would do no good. Eventually the algae die and are digested by bacteria, which release the CO₂ as waste gas.

The only way to permanently sequester CO₂ from the carbon cycle is to separate the carbon atom in each molecule from the oxygen atoms and process it into a non-oxidizing form such as diamond or fullerene.

[Kolb]

Sounds good, but this statement needs to be revised: “Unlike biofuels such as corn, they [algae] don’t use up soil or water”.

Last time I checked algae required water to grow just like all other life forms on Earth.