Posted on 09/15/2010 8:20:10 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
In a big boost for biofuels, Solazyme is expected to announce today that the U.S. Navy has ordered an additional 150,000 gallons of its algae-based fuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
That’s fine, but since no one knows how to produce algae in sufficient quantities to amount to anything, much less at a competitive price, this is just another little bit of green window dressing. The Navy probably spills more diesel a day than this outfit can make in a year.
Yes but they will get better at it over time and that will bring the price down. Solazyme is the front runner in algae tech right now.
at what price
I think things like this, and the technology like engineering bacteria to produce hydrocarbon fuels, will be revolutionary, if we can perfect it. Humans are pretty ingenious mechanically, but I don’t think we can ever hope to top the sublime elegance and efficiency that biological systems possess when it comes to things like converting energy and synthesizing complex compounds.
One algae-related idea I was pondering, was if we could somehow use bioluminescent algae to produce more efficient lighting. When I did a little research, I found out some folks have already been exploring those ideas. The algae with that ability can store energy from sunlight or other ambient light, and then release it later, but they only do it sporadically and not for extended periods, so we’d need to optimize it somehow or using the algae itself isn’t feasiable. Some scientists did manage to tranfer the gene involved into some trees though, so we could someday have “glow in the dark” trees lining the streets of cities, helping to reduce the need for streetlights and electricity.
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