Biomass Fuel From Algae

[NewGuy2005 53]

Is anyone familiar with the processes shown in this video? It looks promising.

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

Here's their home page:

http://www.valcent.net/s/Home.asp

[StreetScooby 5]

I thought that was very interesting. 10% of "New Mexico's" land mass? Sounds too good to be true.

We are all engines of karma

[azdiver 0]

a company called petro sun in az just got their building permits for their plant thay will be building in az between coolidge and tucson, for those that dont know its by eloy. they are going to be making bio jet fuel and diesel there. he forgot to add that algae produces tons of hydrogen also. if those lefty enviro nuts were truly into what they talk about they would be all over this, but their not.

light travels faster than sound, that's why some people appear to be bright until you hear them speak

[billvon 3,132]

>if those lefty enviro nuts were truly into what they talk about they would
>be all over this, but their not.

Personally, I'll be all over this if it works. Since I've been hearing about the latest super efficient super cheap solar technology for 20 years now, I won't be holding my breath.

[Rookie120 0]

Quote

I won't be holding my breath.

Why not? Is it a bad idea or is the technology just not there yet?

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

[azdiver 0]

Quote

>if those lefty enviro nuts were truly into what they talk about they would
>be all over this, but their not.

Personally, I'll be all over this if it works. Since I've been hearing about the latest super efficient super cheap solar technology for 20 years now, I won't be holding my breath.

look up octillion corp. they just stared on their new tech for solar using nano bots placed on glass, sounds pretty promising as well. they are supposed to be working on a plant for production now, untill recently the biggest problem was placing the bots, took long time and lots of labor.

light travels faster than sound, that's why some people appear to be bright until you hear them speak

[n23x 0]

There are constantly 'awesome breakthroughs' that promise to be the 'technology of tomorrow, TODAY!'...

Until the claimed performance isn't met, or the technology isn't robust or cheap enough to be effectively implemented, etc.

It happens a lot. Just think back to the Segway and the claims that it would restructure our cities.

edit: Segway was a terrible example. Lots of people bought those things, they just didn't bring the change people said they would. Better example would be the company claiming it can develop panels @ 70cents/watt (who've been claiming it for a long time now, yet nothing comes to fruition).

.jim

"Don't touch my fucking Easter eggs, I'll be back monday." ~JTFC

[billvon 3,132]

>or is the technology just not there yet?

Technology needs a bit more work.

All these technologies have development curves. Hybrids, for example, are close to being mature. Ethanol is early, but cellulosic plants are rapidly ramping up production. Small scale solar-PV is pretty mature, and is primarily awaiting cost reduction via economies of scale.

Algae is new enough that developers don't even have a good handle on the problems they will have. It's promising but will require a lot more work before it's a viable solution.

[TheAnvil 0]

I think the algae idea has a lot of merit. Be interesting to see how it progresses. Wonder if any other companies are doing similar research.

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[VTmotoMike08 0]

Pretty cool. Agreed that the technology probably needs some more time.

One more thing to consider: what is the electricity consumption of that thing? I don't know much about biochemistry but I do know a thing or two about fluid mechanics and hydrology. To move all that green water thru those tubes, you need a pretty big pump. The higher those tubes get, the more pumping power you need. Gravity can take over the flow once you get it to the top, but you still need a pump that can generate the required static head. If that pump uses more energy than is created by the algae reactions, then the whole thing goes down the crapper. Analysis by someone much smarter than me is required.

[billvon 3,132]

>but you still need a pump that can generate the required static head.

Not if it's a fully filled system (i.e. no air space.) I'd imagine control of dissolved gas concentration and sterility will be big deals, and thus they'd want to seal it as well as possible.

[VTmotoMike08 0]

Hmm... I'm not sure. There is some pretty good moving water in that thing and at the very least you will still have head losses due to friction in the tubes, which is the most significant source of head loss (besides elevation differences). And head loss due to fittings and turbulent flow also. Even if it is a very efficient siphon, you can't have continually moving water without at least adding some energy to the system. And there sure looked there was air space in that thing too.

But I am sure they have some engineers who are a lot better than me working on this one.

[billvon 3,132]

>at the very least you will still have head losses due to friction in the
>tubes . . .

Agreed there. Fortunately, you can reduce the energy lost by reducing flow rates. Not sure if they will need to move water very rapidly in the system.