Here is how they grow algae (Spirulina) found in health food stores. They have 90 acres of ponds in Hawaii where they culture it
http://www.naturalnews.com/002031.html
Posted on 07/05/2008 7:54:19 AM PDT by ovrtaxt
Remember the optimist's creed, "If life gives you lemons, make them into lemonade"?
Well, ConocoPhillips and the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels are trying to do one better in a new, $5 million research partnership:
"If life gives you pond scum, turn it into alternative fuels. And while you're at it, fight global warming."
OK, trying to cram two good ideas into one slogan may make it too long for bumper stickers. But it is a classic example of the creative thinking that promises to reshape Colorado's future while creating jobs in the new energy economy.
Making fuels from pond scum isn't a new idea. Nature thought of it millions of years ago when it covered layers of algae and other organic matter with millions of tons of rock to produce today's deposits of oil and natural gas. But soaring energy prices have encouraged researchers to speed up that natural process.
Algae is very efficient at converting sunlight into oil, so much so that researchers say algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two-car garage than an entire acre of soybeans. Best of all, in water-short regions like Colorado, algae fuels don't compete for scarce fresh water resources but can use seawater or wastewater to make biodiesel, biogasoline and other biofuels.
That means algae can be grown in areas where human food can't be grown, according to Al Weimer, executive director of the center. And how's this for a kicker: carbon dioxide from power-plant emissions can be used as a feedstock for the algae.
So instead of spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from a coal or natural-gas fired power plant, we can recycle that greenhouse gas into algae-based fuels for cars and trucks — fighting global warming and the OPEC oil cartel at one stroke.
Maybe it's time to stop using "pond scum" as an insult and start using it to save our wallets and our planet.
Sure, I can see that. Why not?
Is anybody trying it?
You know what “carbon sequestration” is? And how the eco-nuts love it?
They Valcent add this to their algae proposals to generate more interest. Of course it can be done in a laboratory and it probably accelerates algae growth. But this sounds impractical on an industrial scale.
Yes.
Spirulina (algae in health food store) seems to be spray dried
But I have eaten it and worked with that goop for 22 years. You have not
BTW Health food store algae seems to be grown in Hawaii which is an expensive place to do anything....
But now cheaper Spirulina from China is closing in
Cool, I hope it works. Is that the Simgae system you’re talking about?
http://www.biodieselnow.com/forums/p/22018/153041.aspx#153041
OBTW, it is my sincere belief that this is where oil comes from - saltwater, heat, wast gasses, pressure, and algae, having a party underground.
Dinosaurs never had a thing to do with it.
Of course, some people think that I am nuts.
http://www.seed.slb.com/qa2/FAQView.cfm?ID=867
Origin of natural oil and gas
What is the origin of natural oil and gas?
Most scientists agree that hydrocarbons (oil and gas) are biogenic - formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. This theory is supported by the fact that many underground oil deposits contain chemicals that are only known in plants that live on the Earths surface.
Organisms, mostly algae and tiny animals called plankton, died and sank to the bottom of the seas in which they lived. They were covered with mud and sand then, over millions of years, buried deep under other sediments. Temperature in the Earth’s crust increases with depth. This has warmed the plant and animal remains, causing them to produce oil and gas.
Oil forms at temperatures between about 50°C (120°F) and 175°C (350°F). At higher temperatures, gas is formed and any oil that has already been produced starts to turn into lighter oils and eventually into Methane gas, the lightest and simplest hydrocarbon. At temperatures above about 260°C (500°F), plant and animal remains turn completely to carbon and no more oil or gas are produced.
Methane gas can also be formed at low temperatures at shallow depths. This includes swamp gas, formed by plants decomposing in swamps.
Some gas comes from coal, which is made from deep layers of vegetation from ancient forests. This vegetation has been also buried and “cooked”.
I don’t buy the dinosaur thing either, I also don’t believe in peak oil. I think the Earth just makes it.
But I’m a conspiratorial fruitcake, so don’t listen to me.
No, I have not.
But I don’t know of any living organism that, say, a 100-tonne roller press won’t dry out immediately. Go ride through one, see if you feel dehydrated.
(You eat algae from china? Man, you are far braver than I.)
Here is how they grow algae (Spirulina) found in health food stores. They have 90 acres of ponds in Hawaii where they culture it
http://www.naturalnews.com/002031.html
“Most scientists agree that hydrocarbons (oil and gas) are biogenic - formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. This theory is supported by the fact that many underground oil deposits contain chemicals that are only known in plants that live on the Earths surface.”
And yet we can produce them in a lab, in weeks.
Why assume it took “Hundreds of millions of years”?
Hawaii not china and from company mentioned in my preceding post... with the photo of ponds
They’ll need it. and a lot more.
You need to read the wiki entry on petroleum. Read and learn its origin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
verrryyy interesting!
The entire Dead Sea is curruntly available for use, and it is about 900m beneath the med.
What are the envirowhackos going to say, you killed it?
Hellllo....it is deaaad...
Why, thank you, for pointing me to the Barak Obama of authoritarian sources.
Don’t take insult, but...this is an area where a lot of folks, way more studied than me, disagree.
So I have my own theory, others have their own. Nobody knows the real answer, yet.
Fun to argue in the meantime, huh?
Of course health food store has to be cultured cleanly enough to be edible.... But growing algae for biomass to make oil would be about the same. Done in ponds. Except for Valcent which will hang plastic bags in the desert. I can just see the desert sun ruining those bags in months or a year
OK ..so you’re tripping
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