Algae tapped for biodiesel production by PetroSun
PetroSun Drilling Inc. has created Algae BioFuels Inc. as a wholly-owned subsidiary to research and develop methods of using algae to produce biofuels. The subsidiary will be based in Arizona and Australia and will research using the algae into biodiesel, ethanol, methanol, methane and even hydrogen, the company says. Previous algae energy research was conducted by the Department of Energy from 1978 until 1996. PetroSun says that research shows that algae might be able to produce 30 times (!) more oil per acre than current crop farming methods. I wonder how much political muscle will be thrown into promoting ethanol when farmers can't compete against little microbes who are producing 3000 percent as much ethanol as they can.
[Source: PetroSun, Yahoo! News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 4:41PM (7/07/2006)
The article said that algae might be able to produce 30 times more oil per acre than current crop farming methods, not 3000 percent more ethanol.
The company will research ethanol and hydrogen production as well, since those are Politically Correct things to 'study', but biodiesel has a giant running head start -- it can be used right now, it doesn't require invention of several new technologies, and it can compete head-on with dinofuel without any government subsidy, which NONE of the other alternative fuels can do (except maybe the new coal-catalytic-hydrogenation process, but that remains to be seen; plus that is still dinofuel).
Ethanol is a poor alternative fuel, and on top of that, corn is a poor source of ethanol. Hydrogen is so ridiculously bad that one wonders if the proponents of hydrogen are actually using too much ethanol.
I'll be checking PetroSun as a potential investment.
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Synergy 6:24PM (7/07/2006)
How is hydrogen bad? If hydrogen is produced from plain old tap water utilizing solar/wind or even nuke for electrolysis then hydrogen is a good thing. Hydrogen can then be utilized as a battery to power either fuel cells or combustion engines.
Cellulosic ethanol is not bad as the corn stuff is. Corn ethanol is just being pumped by corn lobby who also screw our sugar prices as well. In fact for another ethanol company check out http://www.greenfuelonline.com/index.htm and tell me they are bad.
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JcB 12:45PM (7/10/2006)
Howard... 100% basically doubles the base value.
30 times more Biodeieel is equal to 100%x30... or 3000%. You might want to refrain from pointing out other's mistakes until you thoroughly think about the comment.
I have always advocated algae for Biodiesel ever since reading articles about it in hte early 90s. Alas, the corn lobby is ever-growing in influence...
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Robert Vessie 4:06PM (7/28/2006)
Hello JcB:
I don't believe Howard was disputing the fact that that 30 times something is equivalent to 3000%.
Rather he was pointing out the fact that the oil (triglycerides/fatty acids) produced by the algae for biodiesel production, has nothing to do with the fermentable sugars required for ethanol production...Basically, that biodiesel and ethanol are not the same thing.
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disgustedandamused 1:28PM (12/27/2006)
I don't think the growth of algal biodiesel really competes against ethanol at all:
1. Diesel fuels work in diesel (compression-ignition) engines, while ethanol is being developed for gasoline (spark-ignition) engines;
2. Bio-oil, from any source, needs to be processed to become biodiesel. Usually this uses an alcohol (ahem, usually either methanol or ethanol), so... producing biodiesel often demands ethanol made from something.
3. While current US bio-ethanol is made from corn, Broin has recently announced they are building their first cellulosic ethanol plant.
4. As PetroSun has mentioned in their press releases, algal research has also looked at ethanol, sugar, and other chem-production possibilities. The general point of algal biochem production is that the right algae species can outproduce any plant-based crop on an acre/year basis. So... it's possible fuels-oriented biochem production may gravitate towards algae in place of plant-crops anyway (in some economic regions, at least).
5. Keep in mind that the global fuels market is facing multiple production and demand factors. Production will be constrained by Peak Oil/Gas, Global Warming concerns, plus biomass-diversion constraints usually referred to as "the sixth extinction." Demand, on the other hand, is facing economic development from China and India, plus human population growth that won't top out until nine billion. In other words, no matter how high
biofuels production goes, or how carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative it is, someone somewhere will buy that fuel. Corn farmers may end up simply producing bio-alcohol fuels just to ensure their local markets.
6. By the way, if you're not impressed with ethanol, take a look at the fuels-performance of butanol. Not only have Shell and BP announced bio-butanol production projects, there's an independent biobutanol entrepreneur at www.butanol.com you might check out.
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