Author Topic: Widescale Biodiesel Production from Algae (Read 1016 times)

AKcurly · « **on:** October 20, 2004, 12:57:13 AM »

http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

A bit technical read, but a clear approach to solving the petroleum problem.

Send the link to your congress critter.

curly

AKIron · « **Reply #1 on:** October 20, 2004, 01:04:04 AM »

Sounds like it has real potential. Wouldn't it be great to eliminate dependence on foreign oil and have a virtually unlimited fuel source? Now, if they can just get that annoying knock out of diesel engines.

Fishu · « **Reply #2 on:** October 20, 2004, 01:23:35 AM »

I wonder if the biodiesel would become so good alternative.
Sounds to me like wind power laid horizontally -> needs alot of land compared to usage -> it's not ideal to every year grow the same stuff on same piece of land... for years and years that is.

Hydrogen sounds good for the availability.. downside is that it needs a whopping new engine.

I wonder if an another kind of biodiesel would be possible. biodiesel created by bacterias... those just doesn't like living in oil or diesel very well :>

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #3 on:** October 20, 2004, 01:46:01 AM »

Nothing is free. In 100 years left leaning progressives of the day will be cursing the Algea Bio Diesel mega corporations for polluting the atmosphere with enormous amounts of oxygen from the algea fields... Environmental advocvates will cry out against the destruction of precisus drylands and their conversion to algea farms.. Rainforests will be suffocating from the lack of CO2 and the world, as always, will be only a few decades from destruction...

And it will all be your fault curly..

FUNKED1 · « **Reply #4 on:** October 20, 2004, 02:35:40 AM »

Why ask Congress to do something that the market will take care of when the time comes? The government will just waste half the money we give them and do a poor job with the rest.

Wotan · « **Reply #5 on:** October 20, 2004, 03:04:34 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by FUNKED1
Why ask Congress to do something that the market will take care of when the time comes? The government will just waste half the money we give them and do a poor job with the rest.

I thought the exact same thing when I read his post. Why call in the government...?

Keep government as far away from it as possible.

CyranoAH · « **Reply #6 on:** October 20, 2004, 03:07:19 AM »

BIODIESEL GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!

J_A_B · « **Reply #7 on:** October 20, 2004, 03:15:23 AM »

The private sector is notorious for ignoring superior technology as long as something cheaper/more profitable is still available. Sometimes that is good, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it takes a gentle nudge from Uncle Sam to point industry in the right direction.

After all, it isn't the goodness of the corporations' hearts that caused them to better monitor pollution and waste disposal. It isn't the CEOs who demanded an end to child labor and the shareholders sure weren't the ones concerned about employee working conditions and safety.

The free market is a powerful force, but sometimes it needs a little guidance from a higher authority.

J_A_B

SunTracker · « **Reply #8 on:** October 20, 2004, 03:18:56 AM »

Hydrogen fuel isnt economical because of all the energy that is required to extract it.

NUKE · « **Reply #9 on:** October 20, 2004, 03:21:26 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by SunTracker
Hydrogen fuel isnt economical because of all the energy that is required to extract it.

how is it extracted?

NUKE · « **Reply #10 on:** October 20, 2004, 03:23:55 AM »

I used to produce hydrogen as a kid.....made my own hydrogen "balloons'" out of very large garbage bags. And I didn't use electrolysis.

AKcurly · « **Reply #11 on:** October 20, 2004, 03:44:40 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by FUNKED1
Why ask Congress to do something that the market will take care of when the time comes? The government will just waste half the money we give them and do a poor job with the rest.

Couldn't agree more, Funked. But a little boost along the way, incentives of some sort, encouraging diesel engines and discouraging production of gas engines would go a long way.

One of the best features of the bio diesel idea is using feeder rivers to the gulf as the water source. The algae remove most of the nitrogen that's causing so many problems in the gulf.

curly

ra · « **Reply #12 on:** October 20, 2004, 07:09:44 AM »

Quote

The private sector is notorious for ignoring superior technology as long as something cheaper/more profitable is still available.

How can something be superior when something else is cheaper and more profitable?

If algae biodiesel turns out to be feasable the Greens will be against it because it will pollute the air just as much as petroleum
diesel. They just want us to ride bicycles from our communes to the food co-op.

Mini D · « **Reply #13 on:** October 20, 2004, 08:01:29 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by NUKE
I used to produce hydrogen as a kid.....made my own hydrogen "balloons'" out of very large garbage bags. And I didn't use electrolysis.

I forgot... was it by dropping sodium into water or was it magnesium?

I do believe that is an extremely inefficient way to produce hydrogen.

Then again... I'll have to read the article at work, because I'm finding it very difficult to believe "biodeisel" is all that efficient to produce either.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #14 on:** October 20, 2004, 08:08:15 AM »

Thankfully Bush is one of the driving forces behind alternative fuel sources:

U.S. Department of Agriculture Announces Bioenergy
Program Signup
Signup for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bioenergy Program for Fiscal Year 2002 was held from September 4 through September 28, 2001. The program stimulates industrial consumption of agricultural commodities by promoting their use in bioenergy production, a significant element of President Bush's energy development policy. "President Bush's energy policy calls for increased production of renewable energy sources," said Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman. "This program provides incentives for agriculture to be part of this nation's energy solutions and we expect even greater production levels this year."