Another possible method for producing fuel?

[Unmoosical]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/vid...ons.fuel.from.scum.cnn

I just wanted to see what ATOT thought of this. I think it's a great idea if it can be made into a decent amount of fuel.

I have one questions though. The video mentions "100,000 gallons of algae oil per acre per year" and compares it to corn at "20-30 gallons an acre." I'm pretty sure corn isn't being made into algae oil so is it something that can be compared or not?

Another question would be how much of this oil does it take to make bio-diesel?

Still sounds like an interesting idea to me.

 

[K1052]

Algae isn't real new as an oil source. Perfecting the production method has been the problem. The main emphasis is now on various types of bioreactors (like in the video).

You can compare how much energy is yielded per acre and Algae is far above other feedstocks for biofuels. It also doesn't require fertile farmland.

 

[Unmoosical]

Originally posted by: K1052
Algae isn't real new as an oil source. Perfecting the production method has been the problem. The main emphasis is now on various types of bioreactors (like in the video).

You can compare how much energy is yielded per acre and Algae is far above other feedstocks for biofuels. It also doesn't require fertile farmland.

I realize you can compare the energy yielded per acre but that's not what was done unless I'm mistaken. They compared the amounts of volume. "100,000 gallons per acre..."

 

[OulOat]

Nice, mass use of water in the middle of a desert... they need to do this in the ocean. Plenty of water and algae.

 

[FoBoT]

sawgrass, man, sawgrass

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Unmoosical
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/vid...ons.fuel.from.scum.cnn

I just wanted to see what ATOT thought of this. I think it's a great idea if it can be made into a decent amount of fuel.

I have one questions though. The video mentions "100,000 gallons of algae oil per acre per year" and compares it to corn at "20-30 gallons an acre." I'm pretty sure corn isn't being made into algae oil so is it something that can be compared or not?

Another question would be how much of this oil does it take to make bio-diesel?

Still sounds like an interesting idea to me.

We discussed this pretty in depth at Future in Review last summer in San Diego, the main issue is bioengineering the algea for the task. Things are very very very interesting on this front as food based fuels are causing food issues that will only get worse, something like this can be done on a large scale without sacraficing farming land or resources. We are still (probably) a decade or so away from viability, but if it gets to that point it would be a HUGE improvement in our energy ecosystem.

Bill

 

[Locut0s]

The really interesting stuff will start happening when we start to genetically engineer these algae and other photosynthesising organisms to produce organisms with the perfect qualities. There is HUGE potential here!!!

Edit Or basically what he ^ said

 

[frostedflakes]

Algae does have a lot of potential. Although I've read real-world yields so far have been quite a bit less than expected, it still offers many times more oil per acre than anything else out there. And as they work out the kinks and stuff scientists will probably start to reach theoretical yields, which are quite high.