PetroSun: Algae Biofuels Reaches Final Stage

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47316

PetroSun, Inc.'s field testing of the cultivation of algae for biodiesel production has progressed to the final stage prior to the construction of a commercial cultivation facility.

This final stage will consist of producing adequate algae paste to test the output and economics of several biodiesel refinery manufacturers now under consideration by Algae Biofuels, a wholly owned subsidiary of PetroSun, which will own and operate the production and refinery facilities.

Algae BioFuels is considering sites in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Louisiana and Michigan for its initial commercial cultivation of algae feedstock in the U.S. In the foreign market, Australia and China are the leading candidates for production and refinery operations.

"Should the cultivation process prove to be successful outside of the U.S. Sunbelt, Algae BioFuels' model is to locate production and refinery sites near major cities and truck routes to reduce the cost of biodiesel in those areas," said cccc

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[NMDemDist2]

1. our little town of Carlsbad NM is getting behind this bigtime

we have lots of brackish water around (needed for algae growth) and lots of research $$$ from the nuclear waste facility just down the road.

the city just gave a grant to a company to start a facility here.

we are watching with great interest. and i think my next vehicle will be a diesel car :bounce: i would be thrilled to use local diesel for my transportation.

[LSK]

2. can some explain how this works??

Because I have an image of a bunch frog ponds for this to work.

[NMDemDist2]

3. Australia started it, but the SW of the US also has good places for algae

Some species of algae are ideally suited to bio-diesel production due to their high oil content (some well over 50 per cent oil), with extremely fast growth rates. Algae farms would let us supply enough bio-diesel to completely replace petroleum as a transportation fuel.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US has performed research on harvesting bio-diesel from algae farms. They were using saltwater ponds in deserts to grow algae for biodiesel. NREL's research (pdf file 3.58MB) showed that 28.3 million tonnes of bio-diesel could be produced from 200,000 hectares of desert land which would almost cover the requirements of UK in 2020. In fact algae technology offers the opportunity to utilise land and water resources that are, today, unsuited for any other use. Land use needs for microalgae complements, rather than competes, with farming of crops for food.

In Western Australia and South Australia there already exists a nucleus of an industry that has been built up around growing algae in ponds with salt water and the extraction of high value added products such as beta carotene out of them.

Australia would be ideally placed to develop an alternative bio-diesel industry based on algae that could be grown in brackish bodies of water using an abundance of sunlight.

[Ready4Change]

5. I think they plan to use green houses, not open ponds.

With a green house they can "farm" algae all year round, control their stock, and make better use of water (rather than have it evaporate into the open air and create huge water costs.

They grown it, scoop it, and grow more while they process what they've scooped. They feed it, to a large extent, waste run off from cities and animal farming. And while it works best in southern climes, it still is very productive in northern climes. Produces fuel in quantities that make ethanol production from corn look pathetic.

IMO, it's the most promising replacement for oil for powering our cars I know of right now.

[suziedemocrat]

6. Here's an article where they run smoke from coal plants through algae filled tubes to clean the air.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0111/p01s03-sten.html

Isn't it ironic that the future of mankind, and possibly the Earth, may depend on a single-celled organism?

[BeFree]

7. Sarcasm

Don't you know we are not technologically sufficient to 'clean the air'?

It is simply impossible to remove from smokestacks the particles in the emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Just like it is impossible to clean tailpipe emissions at the south end of an automobile heading north.

What we will do is emit radiation, because no one can 'see' radiation, therefore there is no problem.

[suziedemocrat]

8. I'm too dense to get your post.

Was it a dig on nuclear power that is supposedly "ok" because people can't see radiation?

Or, is it really impossible to clean the dirty coal air?

[BeFree]

9. .......

It was all sarcasm.

We can clean emissions from coal plants... if we really tried. Some, in fact are trying, but not nearly hard enough. But we have cleaned up some emissions from tailpipes, eh?

And the nuke bit was to point out that it seems some folks are in favor of nukes only because nuke emissions can't be seen. Nor, of course have those emissions been cleaned up. And I'm not convinced those emissions can be.

[suziedemocrat]

10. That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for bearing with me.

[JohnWxy]

4. tried to recommend, but was too late. Good stuff.