What greene energy can't do.

[August]

Originally Posted by Betonov

That's one option. But those algae need to be fed, bringing us to another dillema of food vs fuel like with biodiesel.

I thought the algae were supposed to eat carbon?

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Originally Posted by August

I thought the algae were supposed to eat carbon?

They use solar energy to synthesize carbon dioxide (CO2) and dihydrogen monoxide (H2O, commonly called water) into organic material usually but not always sugars.

Ofcourse they also need phosphate, nitrogen, sulfur and other chemicals as building blocks but they get their energy from photosynthesis. What we humans want to do is to process algae to hydrocarbons (molecules containing carbon and hydrogen) which can be burned to run our little toys like cars, aircrafts, ships and power plants.

[vienna]

I will try to keep out of this, but let me just say this:


Quote:
Originally Posted by Albert Einstein
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.



TRUE!

Wow, I didn't know Einstein is an active of SubSim...

Well, suprise!

[August]

Originally Posted by kraznyi_oktjabr

They use solar energy to synthesize carbon dioxide (CO2) and dihydrogen monoxide (H2O, commonly called water) into organic material usually but not always sugars.

Ofcourse they also need phosphate, nitrogen, sulfur and other chemicals as building blocks but they get their energy from photosynthesis. What we humans want to do is to process algae to hydrocarbons (molecules containing carbon and hydrogen) which can be burned to run our little toys like cars, aircrafts, ships and power plants.

So it's not like biodiesel then where we're having to make the choice between using crops for food or fuel?

So it's not like biodiesel then where we're having to make the choice between using crops for food or fuel?

The only real choice most farmers make is which product will pay most for the least amount of input.
If the money is in cotton then people will choose to grow cotton as a crop instead of food, if the money is in corn for diesel they will grow corn for diesel, if the money is in corn for fructose syrup then the people will grow obese.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Originally Posted by August

So it's not like biodiesel then where we're having to make the choice between using crops for food or fuel?

Yes. What you (in theory) need is a large pool of water for growing algae therefore you can put it into middle of desert if necessary. What will be biggest problem in growing algae is need for sunlight which means that pools must be quite large in surface area you can not just dig deeper hole for it. Another trouble maker is availability of water. Propably most practical solution would be to locate growing pools in seaside location so that seawater can be directed to pools as necessary.

I don't know what exact needs for growing are they vary highly because there are a lot different algae species with different needs. If we consider only sunlight and water need and in my opinion important thing - putting it somewhere else but Middle East - then two of my favourite locations would be coastal areas of California, USA and southern coastal areas of Spain.

All above is in theory. How it will work have to be seen but I really hope that this will work and we will get it relatively soon.

EDIT: EADS has already flown algae fuel powered helicopter so the questions is no longer "can you do it" but "can you do it at commercially viable cost"? I hope that EADS and its competitors in this field can make industrial scale production feasible.

EDIT#2: I don't know for sure but I'm worried that biggest problem is not in efficiency of growing algae but in efficiency of processing it to fuel usable in cars, aircrafts and so on.