Biofuel Algae
March 15th, 2009Algae
Will Algae be the fuel of the future?
There are at least 16 bio fuel companies that think so, it seems there is a race on to make algae in to the 3rd generation bio fuel.
Critics say that it is not environmentally feasible that
1) It uses to much water
2) that it produces c02 when used,
3) will take up to much land area,
however having looked at all the negative and positive augments of this potential fuel source this is convincing to me (like many others such as Bill Gates) that algae is the answer to many environmental issues including slowing down global warming.
Addressing the issue of 1) using to much water, algae can grow in any water salt, fresh or even contaminated water it can even eat up sewage and polluted waste helping to clean up the environment. Companies like Blue Marble, harvest existing algae growth from polluted areas.
2) produces C02, it is true it does produce C02 when burned as fuel, however it is considered, neutral as it only emanates the C02 that it captured in the first place to grow. Additionally several companies are harnessing C02 produced from power plants, breweries and other existence smokestacks that produce carbon dioxide.
3) taking up more land area, if all algae was to be grown in open flat ponds it would take up a lot of space this is being done be Petro Sun that have over 1100 acres of ponds. But many other companies are using clear tubes and tanks to counteract this problem. The argument is then given, that it will cost to much to maintain as much cleaning is required to keep the containers at their optimum light level. This could create employment.
If corn, soy or other bio materials where to be grown to produce bio fuel or ethanol, it would use up valuable land that could be used to feed an ever growing population, require good well tended soil, fresh water (rain or otherwise) and take around 5 months to grow to maturity. where as algae is fast growing and would only take a few days to reach harvesting time. A higher percentage of the plants biomass is convertible to a usable fuel. The waste (phosphorus and nitrogen, can be used as fertilizer. It does not need fresh water or soil and can grow using waste products, it is true however that it does require warm conditions to reproduce, this can be achieved with sunshine and green house effects of the plastic tubes. It can also be argued that recycled plastic can be used to create this growing tanks.
Any spillage, of this “green crude” unlike conventional crude oil does not require a mass clean up effort and containment, as it will not harm ground water, it will not coat the feathers of defenseless birds and cause mass environmental damage, and then be unusable and need careful disposal. It can be regathered or harvested to be used again.
There are costs involved, as with any project, different companies are coming up with a myriad of innovative solutions to using and producing algae. There are open ponds, closed ponds, growing on sea water, tanks using C02 from existing sources, others looking at mixing it with conventional fuels (not so good). companies looking at pumping live algae though existing fuel refinery systems. There is one that uses sugar as a food for the algae, one using thermochemical reactions, one with a submerged light system, most are reliant on free sunlight.
Gasifying algae is an option looked at by another. This show that there are many options for the implementation and production of algae, it is a far more versatile fuel source than that of coal oil or natural gas.
It could also be said that if algae is used for production of electricity at some point in the future that a continues cycle loop could be set up that the C02 released from the power plant could be recaptured to grow more fuel.
As with any fuel, there are to be emissions, could in the future, there be a way to capture them, have the emissions go back into the fuel tanks regrow more algae which is re burned as fuel? of course the issue of refining the algae in to bio fuel would have to be address, but hay you never know may be one day vehicles will never have to be re-fueled again.
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