Posted on 12/20/2013 9:24:42 AM PST by logi_cal869
Engineers have created a continuous chemical process that produces useful crude oil minutes after they pour in harvested algae — a verdant green paste with the consistency of pea soup.(snip)
In the PNNL process, a slurry of wet algae is pumped into the front end of a chemical reactor. Once the system is up and running, out comes crude oil in less than an hour, along with water and a byproduct stream of material containing phosphorus that can be recycled to grow more algae.
With additional conventional refining, the crude algae oil is converted into aviation fuel, gasoline or diesel fuel. And the waste water is processed further, yielding burnable gas and substances like potassium and nitrogen, which, along with the cleansed water, can also be recycled to grow more algae.(snip)
The recent work is part of DOE's National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels & Bioproducts, or NAABB. This project was funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Both PNNL and Genifuel have been partners in the NAABB program.
(Excerpt) Read more at pnnl.gov ...
Maybe this is proof that during the dinosaur age oil was created from huge amounts of algae that grew during that time were covered over and buried while other plant growth turned to coal.
Not to mention the smell.
The US Dept of Agriculture currently pays BILLIONS out via the Crop Reduction Program (CRP). This program pays farmers with land that could be farmed, to not farm.
I am of the opinion, that a significant reduction of our foreign oil dependence along with an improvement in the cash flows for farms could be achieved if the USDA would require the production of X numbers of gallons of algae in order to qualify for Y number of acres in the CRP program.
Further, tax breaks could be provided to ag co-ops that build algae collection and process to oil facilities that could then be shipped via trains to refineries.
Growing algae can be done in tanks, in ponds, etc. Farmers might even be able to process the algae into bio-diesel for their own farm equipment thus reducing their costs. The algae can then be sold to the co-op, the co-op collect and process into oil and the oil sold to refineries. In essence, boot strapping a whole ag industry that would be a whole lot more efficient that trying to turn food (corn) into fuel (ethanol).
This process uses 'wet algae'; that's the major difference. Using the 'reactor' is akin to cooking your chicken in an oven vs. a pressure-cooker; much greater efficiency. I believe Sapphire Energy is also using the 'wet' process, but that's not been revealed that I can find.
My 'geek' was stimulated by this research...fascinating.
This may explain Abiotic oil theories that have long been laughed at by enviromentalmidgets.
The problem with solar has always been storage. This seems like a good solution.
Of course the greenies will attempt to ban the technology.
Good. Now make several million gallons of it per day. Oh, and keep the price per gallon at $2.50 or less.
I considered that. But I respectfully disagree:
An Alternative to corn-to-ethanol processes & fringe electric/battery tech funded by MASSIVE government investment & bias (both resulting from its own ‘activism’) is, indeed, Activism.
IMHO. Am I wrong?
If it proves to be economically viable, the greenies will hate it and try to ban it.
If it’s a worthless sinkhole of resources, they’ll tout it as the way of the future and demand subsidies.
Good news everybody.
But I do have a few questions:
1. What are the resource requirements and energy inputs into growing the algae?
2. What are the resource requirements and energy inputs into reacting the algae into oil?
3. Does the energy output from burning the oil exceed the energy inputs into the total process?
4. Is the growth and reaction processes expandable and sustainable?
5. Are there any undesirable byproducts of the growth and reactions processes?
That is all.
Bump for later
Now I’m confused. You threw me with the ‘isn’t activism’ statement.
The forum is News/Activism.
If this isn’t at least news, please direct me to which forum applies in this case.
Not being an a$$; trying to understand and elaborating that I’ve thought this, and other posts, through.
“This may explain Abiotic oil theories that have long been laughed at by enviromentalmidgets.”
Man, the Enviros are going to be pi$$ed.....
It may be a very large amount of oil, but the way things are going, we will be eating the algae and walking to work.
So, the same process can probably be used with any carbon based material when mixed with a proportion amount of H2O under tremendous pressure and heat. And since it's just recycling carbon, there is no need for a carbon credit scheme.
As big as Mars, maybe?
look for PETA to start a campaign to prevent harm to algae.
My question is:
How much does it cost?
If its going to be cheaper per gallon, great. If its going to cost more per gallon, it is not worth doing.
It is going to have to be significantly cheaper per gallon to be worth investing in all the infrastructure that it would need.
maybe it does not take “millions and millions” of years to make crude oil “naturally” either.
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