Algae for biofuels
As some of you will know, I've been following the biodiesel and biofuels industry for some time. Recent developments using algae as the feedstock are exciting.
Consider:
1. Sunlight + algae + CO2 + nutrients. Stir, wait, extract.
2. 10,000 gallons per acre per year - compare canola at 140/ac/y and soybeans at 48/ac/y
3. Doesn't displace land for, or consume, food crops - can be grown in sealed or unsealed ponds on marginal land, rooftops, ocean ponds, salinated lakes, and inside smokestacks.
4. Sequesters carbon either at source (in smokestacks or piped into ponds) or from the atmosphere. Net reduction in CO2 emissions is the same, however the concentrated CO2 available at source increases fuel yield dramatically per $ invested and per unit area.
5. Can be retrofitted to existing plant. No need to separate CO2 from other gases in the waste stream (barring toxins) before capture.
6. Does away with all that messy and expensive liquefy, transport, pump underground crap.
7. Can produce both diesel and ethanol.
8. Waste products can be used as stock feed supplement, fertilizer or feedstock for the algae ponds.
9. A two tonne reactor can produce 10 million gallons (approx 240,000 barrels) per year, can be mass-produced and transported to site.
10. Reactor cost is thus down to around $0.10 per gallon capacity
11. Small plant scale allows village/farm scale, franchise and other flexible deployment models, including production close to distribution/use.
12. Trivial modification to existing engines and distribution system compared to either hydrogen or electric.
13. Algae made the fossil fuel we're using now in the first place :) [1]
There isn't enough waste fry oil in the world to displace even 1% of fossil fuel used for transport. Conventional crop feedstocks would require a huge proportion of the world's farmland. It seems like only algae makes biofuels for transport a serious proposition at present.
Further reading
[1] probably
Consider:
1. Sunlight + algae + CO2 + nutrients. Stir, wait, extract.
2. 10,000 gallons per acre per year - compare canola at 140/ac/y and soybeans at 48/ac/y
3. Doesn't displace land for, or consume, food crops - can be grown in sealed or unsealed ponds on marginal land, rooftops, ocean ponds, salinated lakes, and inside smokestacks.
4. Sequesters carbon either at source (in smokestacks or piped into ponds) or from the atmosphere. Net reduction in CO2 emissions is the same, however the concentrated CO2 available at source increases fuel yield dramatically per $ invested and per unit area.
5. Can be retrofitted to existing plant. No need to separate CO2 from other gases in the waste stream (barring toxins) before capture.
6. Does away with all that messy and expensive liquefy, transport, pump underground crap.
7. Can produce both diesel and ethanol.
8. Waste products can be used as stock feed supplement, fertilizer or feedstock for the algae ponds.
9. A two tonne reactor can produce 10 million gallons (approx 240,000 barrels) per year, can be mass-produced and transported to site.
10. Reactor cost is thus down to around $0.10 per gallon capacity
11. Small plant scale allows village/farm scale, franchise and other flexible deployment models, including production close to distribution/use.
12. Trivial modification to existing engines and distribution system compared to either hydrogen or electric.
13. Algae made the fossil fuel we're using now in the first place :) [1]
There isn't enough waste fry oil in the world to displace even 1% of fossil fuel used for transport. Conventional crop feedstocks would require a huge proportion of the world's farmland. It seems like only algae makes biofuels for transport a serious proposition at present.
Further reading
[1] probably