Comments on: Algae Tech’s Latest Goal: Make Ethanol for Bioplastics

By: Tim 333

Tim 333 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:10:07 +0000

re:

“acres of concrete lined open-air algae ponds…t grow algae in closed reactor vessels, without sunlight, necessitate the algae being fed sugars or starches as a source of chemical energy.”

the whole point of the algenol process is you just have a plastic trough in the dessert with optionally waste co2 from power plants in and the alcohol evaporates off. So with a bit of luck it may prove cheap and easy – time will tell.

Incidentally the Algenol algae are genetically modified to produce alcohol but I doubt they would survive well in the wild

By: RZA

RZA — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:53:15 +0000

The first commenter probably gets mad at windmills for hitting the occasional bird. Would you rather import oil from a country that wants to kill us? Where does it say that this will not be properly managed? He’s probaly from Venezuela

By: Carter

Carter — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:29:55 +0000

Nick:
Besides drinking it, I presume? >=P

Christopher:
I think you missed the idea where the algae are ‘fed’ CO2, as stated in the article, to stimulate growth and the creation of ethanol vapors. Besides, if the idea turns out not to be the ultimate salvation for our energy needs (I doubt it will, fusion or solar will take over before algae power) at least we have figured out how to make ‘dericious’ algal booze.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Ethanol -> plastic is the only good use of ethanol I’ve heard of yet.

By: Christopher Calder

Christopher Calder — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:43:13 +0000

Growing algae to make biodiesel is being touted as a cure-all for all our biofuel problems, but we are still stuck with the fact that algae need solar energy to turn carbon dioxide into fuel. To make biodiesel, algae are used as organic solar panels which output oil instead of electricity. Researchers brag that algae can produce 15 times more fuel per acre of land than growing corn for ethanol, but that still means we would need an impossibly large number of acres (about 133 million acres) of concrete lined open-air algae ponds to meet our highway energy demands. Those schemes that grow algae in closed reactor vessels, without sunlight, necessitate the algae being fed sugars or starches as a source of chemical energy. The sugars or starches must then be made from corn, wheat, beets, or other crop, so you are simply trading ethanol potential to make oil instead of vodka. If we construct genetically engineered super-algae that are capable of out-competing native algae strains that contaminate open air algae ponds, the new gene-modified algae will be immediately carried to lakes, reservoirs, and oceans all over the world in the feathers of migrating birds, with unknown and possibly catastrophic results.