While wind and solar and bloom boxes may be opening doors on an electric front, many are still questioning where our energy will come from on the transportation front. Much debate has been swirling around bio diesel lately and whether or not our agriculture industry will be able to grow enough to feed our population as well as transport it. I think its silly for us to stop thinking there. As the years progress, and "green" technologies develop, it may be a blue green organism that helps to answer our problems.
The blue green organism I speak of is a photosynthetic microbe known as cyanobacteria. These algae have been portrayed to do wonders. They filter dirty air of pollutants and CO2, as well as store 250 times more fat per acre than a soybean can that is the basis for biofuels. They also double in a matter of 12 hours where as grasses can take a few weeks to a few months. But of course as with any thing this good, there has to be something bad. Blue-Green algae is no different. Unfortunately, they can be very finicky if they are not given the proper sunlight or if they are contaminated with other forms of bacteria, not to mention the fact that that stored fat takes powerful environmentally unfriendly solvents first harvest then extract. Also once they are harvested, new ones have to be grown to continue the process. In 1978, the Department of Energy launched an 18 year study of this technology with no success and it was terminated due to the amount of money it took to produce. Luckily, since then, there has been genetic engineering to develop algae that releases the fat instead of storing it. Many companies find this version very promising.
About a decade ago, a man named David Bayless, Director of the Coal Research Center at Ohio University developed a membrane that the algae can stick to and grow and the fat can be filtered through in order to keep the process moving. A man at the University of Minnesota has been developing the algae to first be used to clean up waste water then be harvested and then used as fuel. According to him, even an inefficient single acre pond can produce over 5,000 gallons of fuel a year.
Even on the policy front, there is action as seen by "intensive lobbying effort by the industry for a change in U.S. tax policy to allow algae fuel producers to access the $1.01 per gallon production tax credit." This credit expired at the end of 2009, but was recently approved by the senate to extend for the year of 2010 but awaits action by a conference committee before it can be signed into law.
While this form of biodiesel may not be the miracle cure to our nations need for renewable transportation fuel, I think its definitely a start. It's hard to say where it is going to be in 10 years, but I personally think that its worth spending the money on.
This is a really cool concept, but we have to be careful to not take too many blue green algae from their natural habitats because this may lead to a disturbance in the aquatic ecosystem where they came from. In addition, our oceans have been changing from a basic solution to an acidic solution due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This acidic environment also puts a lot of pressure on the algal community. All types of algae are important primary producers and help feed herbivores in the food chain as well as produce oxygen, which is important to many other organisms, including us! Therefore, if we are to use blue green algae for energy we should definitely use this membrane concept developed by David Bayless instead of taking them from their already suffering habitat in the ocean.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080522181511.htm
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ReplyDeleteI definitely think this is worth exploring, so long as we are careful about the spread of the algae and the habitats it comes from.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think a lot of our energy and fuel problems will be solved by several different methods. I think the days where the whole country is relying on just one fuel source are over. Depending on the location, some of these potential fuels are more efficient than others.
-Lindsey Sutphin
It seems that this idea has been mostly directed towards making the algae into a renewable source of fuel, but what about carbon sequestration? I was reading a bit about this, and it seems that using the algae as renewable energy does not promote carbon sequestration because even though the algae initially reduces the CO2, it is once again released into the atmosphere when the biofuel is burned. But perhaps algae could be harvested with the goal of simply reducing CO2, without plans of burning it as biofuel.
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