Algae Bio Mass Farms can produce up to 20,000 gallons of oil per acre per year!
I like all these things that Boone Pickens is doing. However, there seems to be another way to make oil that is not mentioned or at least I haven't found it yet.
There is a process to make fuel from algae. It is clean. It is renewable. It won't drive up food prices like the process from corn to ethanol - quite the opposite in my opinion. I believe prices would begin to come down for the commodities. No need to grow it in fields and then harvest it, a tremendous expense, and process it like corn. These algae are grown in a closed system. Each algae cell contains 50% oil. For a comparison, let’s take corn as an example. The film clip indicates that one acre of corn will produce 18 gallons of oil yearly. One acre of algae will produce 20,000 gallons of oil yearly. With a small amount of land dedicated to this process, all of our oil needs could be satisfied. Imports would drop drastically. We wouldn't have to drill anymore either offshore or in the Arctic. It is estimated that 1/10th of the land mass of New Mexico dedicated to this process could produce all of our oil needs.
Another great thing about this is that different strains of algae can produce different types of fuel. I.e. diesel, gas, fuel oil and more can be produced by these means. These algae plants could be built near where the refineries are. That would cut down on the transportation of the oil as we know it now. How much could that save? There are few more things about this Plan. This Algae Oil Production will use up carbon dioxide which will help with the Green House Effect that we are having. The algae need carbon dioxide to grow. Growing corn causes a lot of fuel hydrocarbons to be released into the atmosphere and adds to pollutants.
I don't possess the knowledge required to know if this algae system will work as the attached link suggests or not. I want the same thing that Boone Pickens wants. To use every means possible to cut back on our imports of oil - now! Not 10 years from now. I want the best way to produce energy. I hope Boone take a look at this idea and gives it some thought. Personally, I think this is the very best idea I have heard of so far to date. I have not thought of one bad thing yet about this way to produce oil. The only caveat will be, "Does this work as advertised in this site".
Take a look at this site. It explains it better than I.
I hope you like this idea as much as I do. This is an idea and a Plan that really needs to be explored!
http://www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html
There is a process to make fuel from algae. It is clean. It is renewable. It won't drive up food prices like the process from corn to ethanol - quite the opposite in my opinion. I believe prices would begin to come down for the commodities. No need to grow it in fields and then harvest it, a tremendous expense, and process it like corn. These algae are grown in a closed system. Each algae cell contains 50% oil. For a comparison, let’s take corn as an example. The film clip indicates that one acre of corn will produce 18 gallons of oil yearly. One acre of algae will produce 20,000 gallons of oil yearly. With a small amount of land dedicated to this process, all of our oil needs could be satisfied. Imports would drop drastically. We wouldn't have to drill anymore either offshore or in the Arctic. It is estimated that 1/10th of the land mass of New Mexico dedicated to this process could produce all of our oil needs.
Another great thing about this is that different strains of algae can produce different types of fuel. I.e. diesel, gas, fuel oil and more can be produced by these means. These algae plants could be built near where the refineries are. That would cut down on the transportation of the oil as we know it now. How much could that save? There are few more things about this Plan. This Algae Oil Production will use up carbon dioxide which will help with the Green House Effect that we are having. The algae need carbon dioxide to grow. Growing corn causes a lot of fuel hydrocarbons to be released into the atmosphere and adds to pollutants.
I don't possess the knowledge required to know if this algae system will work as the attached link suggests or not. I want the same thing that Boone Pickens wants. To use every means possible to cut back on our imports of oil - now! Not 10 years from now. I want the best way to produce energy. I hope Boone take a look at this idea and gives it some thought. Personally, I think this is the very best idea I have heard of so far to date. I have not thought of one bad thing yet about this way to produce oil. The only caveat will be, "Does this work as advertised in this site".
Take a look at this site. It explains it better than I.
I hope you like this idea as much as I do. This is an idea and a Plan that really needs to be explored!
http://www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sally Mole on -
This Algae discussion is fascinating, and thank you to everyone who has added links on it. If you look at the Valcent website, it looks like they put up that algae greenhouse pretty quickly, and the costs were a lot less than a big windmill. And as far as space goes, these greenhouses could be on the roofs of buildings, and defunct parking lots, brownfields, all kinds of places that are just wasted now. Thanks Henry for getting this started!
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Permalink Reply by Henry on -
I am very gratified to get a reply like this. More forward thinking! I never thought about the rooftops you mentioned. Just think, a lot of new construction could contain these "algae greenhouses". This is how we can become free of this stranglehold from the oil producing countries. $700 Billion a year outgo now. I don't know what our GNP is but this looks close to 1/4 of it to me. Great comments Sally! Thanks!
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Permalink Reply by Sally Mole on
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Also, I forgot to say -- imagine all those desertified places in Africa where people are completely destitute -- they could start producing their own algae oil, and get their economies going again!
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Permalink Reply by Henry on
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This could begin to rid the stark poverty we now see in many countries. At least there wouldn't be their need to budget for oil anymore and thus stripping a country's wealth.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Robinette on -
If this concept is true, get it on national TV. Have other researchers verify the concept and business model. Get the government to sign off and deploy grants to your effort. Deploy to a small community, preferrably mine so that I can get off foreign oil soonest. What are the costs? Environmental, Social, etc. As Boone points out, the time for action is now.
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Permalink Reply by Henry on
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I am trying. I have written CNBC and many of their shows, ie squawk box, morning call, etc. but not one reply. It is frustrating to be certain. The opportunity came that this site would exhibit emails, mine included. Now I am reaching out to you and many others. I am hopeful that you will get in on this and not rely only on me. I'm not strong enough. I'll be needing your help. Join in on this movement. By the way, I have nothing to gain from what I am doing now. Maybe I will make an investment, but right now I have none. My motivation is I want the USA to get this monkey off of its back.
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Permalink Reply by bEN rUDDOCK on -
and as we use the algae oil we still polute the air maybe it would best be used as a lubricant rather than a fuel
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Permalink Reply by Danny Smith on -
yes we still put out co2 but the algea uses co2 so its neutral
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Permalink Reply by Amit Patel on -
There is already a big movement for getting Algae production commercial. Recently there have been two organization setup for promoting Algae as Fuel Feedstock. The USA government has already done enough research and also awarded grants for further research.
Many airlines such as Virgin, KLM, Singapore are also participating in Algae research, as Algae will produce the best Jet Fuel.
Most researchers are currently in the development phases for prototyping of a Closed Loop Bioreactor used to grow algae under controlled environment and second to efficiently extract oil, starch and protein from the cells.
As for production, in theory we can get upto 100,000 gallons per acre, though that will take around 10 years, but however 10,000 gallons an acre is currently being achieved through open pond systems.
Also Algae as the primary plant uses photosynthesis to make the basic elements of life.
Lipid (oil) convert to green diesel
Starch convert to ethanol
Protein for animal / human consumption.
I believe algae will be a significant part of our FUTURE ENERGY INDEPENDENCE.
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Permalink Reply by Henry on
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Yours is a great response. Thank you for posting it for everyone else to read. I know a lot of people might be skeptical about this because it is "new". But algae is not new, it is old. We get all of our oil from what was algae millions of years ago.
This is great technology. It offers so many benefits like different blends of oil for different needs. I.e. diesel, gas, heating oil, and more. Your futuristic estimate of 100,000 gallons is exactly what I have been trying to illustrate about how technology will advance, making this the most senseable technique now avaiable to make oil. Just imagine that all of our oil needs could be supplied in about 7 years if we get going on this. Using 100,000 gallons per acre, our land useage would be down from the 1/10 land mass of New Mexico as I posted to 1/50 of that land mass. As another person posted, we could use the roofs of buildings to do this reducing even more the amount of land required.
These comments are terrific and no one has yet come up with one negative thought for producing oil from algae.
Thank you! Write to the people in Washington and put the pressure on them.
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Permalink Reply by Auntie Tutu on -
Henry, you need to EDIT your paragraph above, and start out with facts about the process. People barowsing through only read the top two lines, so Grab em with those two lines. And then keep the discussion alive by commenting on it yourself if necessary to bring it back to the top of the heap. I think this is great, if real, and I certainly want to see IOWA go back to producing food corn instead of FUEL corn. THis might be an industry for the folks down there in the bayous by New Orleans, right?
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