Extremely interesting new fuel source

[alphadeltaromeo]

I found this vid clip to be extremely interesting to me. Please give me your thoughts:

http://www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html

Andy

 

[jw4x4]

If this is true, the oil companies are gonna put that man at the top of the hit list.

 

[alphadeltaromeo]

You could very well be right...but it's rather amazing I'd have to say.

 

[scooter01922]

Extremely cool stuff, i had heard of this stuff a while back and was meaning to look into it more. How cool would it be to gave a greenhouse setup in your own backyard that could produce all the fuel you needed to drive as well as heat your home???? This is the kind of thing they need to spend more money on researching. Algae isn't a particularly picky organism as anyone with a pool will tell you, a source of CO2 a bunch of sunlight and clean water along with some nitrogen and poof ya get lots of it. Thanks for the cool clip ADR.

 

[area52]

Yes but the one thing they don't say is that it is very difficult to extract the oil from the algae right now. Once they figure out how to extract the oil cheaply, then this will be an economical way to go.

 

[swbradley1]

Quick search provides us with three most common methods.

I would think that the people on this site could come up with a backyard way to produce fuel for our trucks.

Method one seems the easiest.


Expeller/Press

Expression/Expeller press-When algae is dried it retains its oil content, which then can be "pressed" out with an oil press. Many commercial manufacturers of vegetable oil use a combination of mechanical pressing and chemical solvents in extracting oil.

While more efficient processes are emerging, a simple process is to use a press to extract a large percentage (70-75%) of the oils out of algae.

Hexane Solvent Method

Algal oil can be extracted using chemicals. Benzene and ether have been used, but a popular chemical for solvent extraction is hexane, which is relatively inexpensive. The downside to using solvents for oil extraction are the inherent dangers involved in working with the chemicals. Benzene is classified as a carcinogen. Chemical solvents also present the problem of being an explosion hazard.

Hexane solvent extraction can be used in isolation or it can be used along with the oil press/expeller method. After the oil has been extracted using an expeller, the remaining pulp can be mixed with cyclo-hexane to extract the remaining oil content. The oil dissolves in the cyclohexane, and the pulp is filtered out from the solution. The oil and cyclohexane are separated by means of distillation. These two stages (cold press & hexane solvent) together will be able to derived more than 95% of the total oil present in the algae.

Supercritical Fluid Extraction

This can extract almost 100% of the oils all by itself. This method however needs special equipment for containment and pressure

In the supercritical fluid/CO2 extraction, CO2 is liquefied under pressure and heated to the point that it has the properties of both a liquid and gas. This liquefied fluid then acts as the solvent in extracting the oil.

 

[Tanner]

No

If true, I'd say this guy would be well-protected... As more of this type of technology comes into 'publc demand', these guys developing this science will get more visibility & be in demand to share info, unlike the 100mpg Fish carburetor myth types & the car that runs on water -

I think the public would be pressing the oil company execs' lugnuts to the wall if guys like this 'vanished' -

Tanner

 

[CCATLETT1984]

RE: No

algae is not a new source, although this method of growing it sure is. Great way to do it, since in an enclosed system you can control the environment.

 

[herc69]

Ferro showed me this last nite, and I just got the chance to respond. This guy is really onto something special. I had seen things about increasing surface area for plant growth and solar applications, and this is just too simple and effective to be ignored. To keep this knowledge from being hidden or destroyed, I feel we should get it to as many people as we can. I have already sent a link for the video to a well known natural living magazine and requested they investigate, and possible do an article on the results. Time will tell if they even respond, but at least I tried.

 

[amanco]

1,590,000 acres of algae generators to replace current daily consumption. Just curious as to the set up cost for such a facility and also the insect hugging greeney weenies are going to fight them tooth and nail. Could you even begin to imagine the impact of covering over a million acres with greenhouses?! No logical solution for energy independence will ever come to fruition as long as liberal pukes walk among us. I don't care how green it is and you don't get much greener than algae!

 

[ecostruction]

You are absolutely correct. They would build greenhouses to cover 1, 590,000 acres in one location. Yep. That's it. Why spead the facilities around the country to reduce delivery costs when you can put it all in one location in the middle of no-where. Makes sense to me.

Why the assumption that anything green has got to be a liberal initiative? That's the problem with energy independence and protection of OUR environment. It's politicized and it shouldn't be.

Why can't republicans be concerned about OUR environment and becoming independent of foreign energy needs? Fine, fine, fine, lets go drill. All so you can have your 2 bucks a gallon fuel back. Then we'll forget all about long term solutions and just wait until we start to run out again. Talk about short sighted.

There are many options available to us, but we aren't willing to put forth any financial resources for R&D. It's sad. The answers are right there in front of us, but our politicians could care less.

 

[rosco]

Long term energy solutions will evolve - it will take a while, but things will work out. That is what this country does best!


Lee in Alaska

 

[davidkroberts]

What i cant understand is that if this one acre site can produce up to 20,000 gallons of high grade vegetable oil why cant i have a backyard unit that I build that will provide oil for myself ( while being less efficent im sure) that will provide for say 2,000 gallons a year. Considering a base median price of 3.73 per gallon the savings of over 7000 dollars per year in fuel savings would more than offset the cost of construction. Im not the brightest crayon in the box but i can build a greenhouse and run a pumping system. I would like to think i could even pipe the pump through a series of solar panels to make everything "green" for the fun of it. Backyard Biodiesel units are cheap and easy to build.

 

[MarcS]

Not to nitpick but the guy said you can only get 18 gallons of oil from an acre of corn. Don't confuse oil from ethanol. On an average yeild acre they get about 400 gallons of ethanol. Nobody has ever grown corn for it's oil content.

While interesting I can't stand it when people are promoting their new improved wheel and use misleading figures.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

as one of the above posts ilustrated, the main issue with this type of system is extracting the oil from the bio mass.

 

[Daneil]

One of the ways to get it out though is a press. How hard to you have to press. Hydraulics are not that expensive.

 

[gringeltaube]

Certainly not a new source for oil and biodiesel, and still awaiting the big start for large scale mass production ....
Lots of info and latest news for the ones more interested; here: http://www.oilgae.com/

 

[CCATLETT1984]

great resource, thanks for posting that gringle

 

[cranetruck]

Crude oil is going to get cheap when all the alternates get on line.

 

[ARMYMAN30YearsPlus]

Wow all those years of hosing off the slime when we went swimming in the Indiana swimming holes we could have been draining them into the John Deeres... Seriously this is good and we as Americans should be able to come up with many new ways of skinning the cat.

I would like to see a two mile charging lane on highways every twenty miles. Power them with clean coal technology and have the auto makers build an electric car with a pick up compatible with the charging lane. Just like an easypass the system would let you charge and go for a fee.