From the archive, originally posted by: [ spectre ]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/energy_spain_plankton_dc;_ylt=AkwRZXLkkTljR309Lh29NzQDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBhcmljNmVhBHNlYwNtcm5ld3M-
Spanish Firm Claims It Can Make Oil From Plankton / Thurs Jul 20
“A Spanish company claimed on Thursday to have developed a method of breeding plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel. Vehicle tests are some time away because the company, Bio Fuel Systems, has not yet tried refining the dark green coloured crude oil phytoplankton turn into, a spokesman said. Bio Fuel Systems is a wholly Spanish firm, formed this year in eastern Spain after three years of research by scientists and engineers connected with the University of Alicante. “Bio Fuel Systems has developed a process that converts energy, based on three elements: solar energy, photosynthesis and an electromagnetic field,” it said in a press dossier. “That process allows us to obtain biopetroleum, equivalent to that of fossil origin.”
Phytoplankton, like other plants, absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. Scientists have examined the possibility of stimulating growth of the single cell plants as a means of reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2, liberated by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, is widely held responsible for global warming. Bio Fuel Systems said its new fuel would reduce CO2, was free of other contaminants like sulphur dioxide and would be cheaper than fossil oil is now. “Our system of bioconversion is about 400 times more productive than any other plant-based system producing oil or ethanol,” it said, referring to currently available biofuels made from plants like maize or oilseeds. Bio Fuel Systems is working with scientists at the University of Alicante on the project. It has drawn up industrial plans to make the fuel and says it will be able to start continuous production in 14 to 18 months.”
—
RELATED
http://www.greenfuelonline.com/technology.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-01-10-algae-powerplants_x.htm
Algae – Like A Breath Mint For Smokestacks
by Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor
“Isaac Berzin is a big fan of algae. The tiny, single-celled plant, he says, could transform the world’s energy needs and cut global warming. Overshadowed by a multibillion-dollar push into other “clean-coal” technologies, a handful of tiny companies are racing to create an even cleaner, greener process using the same slimy stuff that thrives in the world’s oceans. Enter Dr. Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. About three years ago, while working on an experiment for growing algae on the International Space Station, he came up with the idea for using it to clean up power-plant exhaust. If he could find the right strain of algae, he figured he could turn the nation’s greenhouse-gas-belching power plants into clean-green generators with an attached algae farm next door. “This is a big idea,” Berzin says, “a really powerful idea.”
And one that’s taken him to the top – a rooftop. Bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a brick-and-glass 20-megawatt power plant behind MIT’s campus are rows of fat, clear tubes, each with green algae soup simmering inside. Fed a generous helping of CO2-laden emissions, courtesy of the power plant’s exhaust stack, the algae grow quickly even in the wan rays of a New England sun. The cleansed exhaust bubbles skyward, but with 40% less CO2 (a larger cut than the Kyoto treaty mandates) and another
bonus: 86% less nitrous oxide. After the CO2 is soaked up like a sponge, the algae is harvested daily. From that harvest, a combustible vegetable oil is squeezed out: biodiesel for automobiles. Berzin hands a visitor two vials – one with algal biodiesel, a clear, slightly yellowish liquid, the other with the dried green flakes that remained. Even that dried remnant can be further reprocessed to create ethanol, also used for transportation.
Being a good Samaritan on air quality usually costs a bundle. But Berzin’s pitch is one hard-nosed utility executives and climate-change skeptics might like: It can make a tidy profit. “You want to do good for the environment, of course, but we’re not forcing people to do it for that reason – and that’s the key,” says the founder of GreenFuel Technologies, in Cambridge, Mass. “We’re showing them how they can help the environment and make money at the same time.” GreenFuel has already garnered $11 million in venture capital funding and is conducting a field trial at a 1,000 megawatt power plant owned by a major southwestern power company. Next year, GreenFuel expects two to seven more such demo projects scaling up to a full production system by 2009.
Even though it’s early yet, and may be a long shot, “the technology is quite fascinating,” says Barry Worthington, executive director of US Energy Association in Washington, which represents electric utilities, government agencies, and the oil and gas industry. One key is selecting an algae with a high oil density – about 50% of its weight. Because this kind of algae also grows so fast, it can produce 15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre. Just 60 gallons are produced from soybeans, which along with corn are the major biodiesel crops today.
Greenfuel isn’t alone in the algae-to-oil race. Last month, Greenshift Corporation, a Mount Arlington, N.J., technology incubator company, licensed CO2-gobbling algae technology that uses a screen-like algal filter. It was developed by David Bayless, a researcher at Ohio University. A prototype is capable of handling 140 cubic meters of flue gas per minute, an amount equal to the exhaust from 50 cars or a 3-megawatt power plant, Greenshift said in a statement. For his part, Berzin calculates that just one 1,000 megawatt power plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. That would require a 2,000-acre “farm” of algae-filled tubes near the power plant. There are nearly 1,000 power plants nationwide with enough space nearby for a few hundred to a few thousand acres to grow algae and make a good profit, he says.
Energy security advocates like the idea because algae can reduce US dependence on foreign oil. “There’s a lot of interest in algae right now,” says John Sheehan, who helped lead the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) research project into using algae on smokestack emissions until budget cuts ended the program in 1996. In 1990, Sheehan’s NREL program calculated that just 15,000 square miles of desert (the Sonoran desert in California and Arizona is more than eight times that size) could grow enough algae to replace nearly all of the nation’s current diesel requirements. “I’ve had quite a few phone calls recently about it,” says Mr. Sheehan. “This is not an outlandish idea at all.”