Comments on: Hey, There’s Algae in My Oil! http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2007/11/06/hey-theres-algae-in-my-oil/ Sat, 11 May 2013 22:50:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: frank weigert http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2007/11/06/hey-theres-algae-in-my-oil/#comment-671 frank weigert Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:41:00 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2007/11/06/hey-theres-algae-in-my-oil/#comment-671 Botryococcus braunii is a pelagic algae that grows in the Indian Ocean. Its various strains make isoprene oligomers with different average molecular weights, mostly centered around n=6. What matters most is that the dry weight of the most prolific strain is OVER 70% HYDROCARBON. This is algae truly is a fuel plant. Oil companies could feed these hydrocarbons directly into existing refineries. Electricity generators could directly replace coal with them. Because the hydrocarbons contain no sulfur, nitrogen, metals or ash, most existing pollution abatement and catalyst guard investment could be shut down as unnecessary. This is a really sweet feedstock. For more details and some economic background see the website: http://alum.mit.edu/ne/whatmatters/200111.index.html. Botryococcus braunii is a pelagic algae that grows in the Indian Ocean. Its various strains make isoprene oligomers with different average molecular weights, mostly centered around n=6. What matters most is that the dry weight of the most prolific strain is OVER 70% HYDROCARBON. This is algae truly is a fuel plant.

Oil companies could feed these hydrocarbons directly into existing refineries. Electricity generators could directly replace coal with them. Because the hydrocarbons contain no sulfur, nitrogen, metals or ash, most existing pollution abatement and catalyst guard investment could be shut down as unnecessary. This is a really sweet feedstock.

For more details and some economic background see the website:

http://alum.mit.edu/ne/whatmatters/200111.index.html.

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