{"id":292,"date":"2007-01-09T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-09T10:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oilgae.com\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2015-01-13T11:54:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T11:54:44","slug":"key-to-new-energy-source-lies-in-algae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/key-to-new-energy-source-lies-in-algae.html","title":{"rendered":"The key to new energy source lies in algae"},"content":{"rendered":"

You are at: Oilgae Blog<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

Do you know that oil derived from algae<\/b> is an exciting renewable fuel possibility? – see Oilgae<\/a><\/b> for more.<\/p>\n

The key to new energy source lies in algae<\/strong>
\nBy Mark E. Capron, December 18, 2006<\/p>\n

Thanks to Tom Catino @ Oil from Algae Yahoo Group<\/a> for bringing this article to my notice<\/p>\n

Re: John Krist’s Dec. 14 essay, “Substituting grass for gas”:<\/p>\n

We’re both happy there are places that can afford to grow grass for
\nfuel. But if global warming and foreign oil were a baseball game,
\ngrass, corn and soybeans are good sacrifice bunts. Unfortunately, we
\naren’t noticing the home-run hitter sitting on the bench: algae
\nfarming.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Algae provides two products, food and biodiesel, simultaneously.
\nAlgae farming may be the low-cost, high-nutrition food sought by the
\n2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner. In contrast, producing 25-gallons of
\ncorn ethanol destroys a year’s food for one person.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Corn, grass, soybeans and biomass use water with less than 2,000
\nparts per millimeter salts. Algae grown in water has zero to 60,000
\nppm salts. Saltier water algae are oilier.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Research from the University of New Hampshire shows algae produces
\nbetween 5,000 and 15,000 gallons of fuel per acre per year. (Corn
\nproduces about 350 gpa annually; soybeans about 60.) This means
\nCalifornia could easily grow enough algae to replace all
\nCalifornia’s transportation fuel demand.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Algae farming works symbiotically with water issues in places like
\nthe Oxnard Plain and the Salton Sea to be an environmental
\nmitigation and to produce funds to pay for maintaining other
\nmitigations.<\/p>\n

These four reasons provide a nexus for state and federal funding to
\nresolve Oxnard Plain, Salton Sea, Owens Lake and Westlands Water
\nDistrict issues. The reasons indicate investing in algae farming
\nwill yield more energy, more quickly than hydrogen or ethanol,
\nparticularly in climates like California’s.<\/p>\n

A challenge would be a very quick and efficient means to move algae
\nfarming from small demonstrations to large scale. There are issues
\nto resolve before large scale (1,000-plus acres) algae farms become
\neconomically viable. Algae in open ponds lose a lot of water because
\nof evaporation, making it difficult to provide a consistent salinity
\ncontent. It is difficult to mix the necessary nutrients in shallow
\nponds. The highest-yield algae strains are often overwhelmed by
\nother algae and bacteria. The algae require a constant supply of
\ncarbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

Ventura County is an ideal location for the challenge. The challenge
\nsite could be within bicycle distance of CSU Channel Islands while
\nalso only an hour from UC Santa Barbara. There are flat agricultural
\nareas near 400 acres of duck ponds between Oxnard and Point Mugu
\nthat would benefit from agriculture that did not require ground
\nwater. Agricultural drainage water, in need of nutrient removal
\ntreatment, is available. (The algae will turn nutrients to energy,
\nand perhaps recycle or decompose other constituents of agricultural
\ndrainage.) A large supply of brackish water that may benefit from
\nadditional treatment will shortly be available from the Calleguas
\nCreek Brine Line.<\/p>\n

The challenge would allocate aspiring algae farmers a plot of land
\nfor side-by-side demonstrations. The winning farmer will produce
\nbiodiesel and food while removing pollutants from desalting brines
\nand agriculture runoff with the most cost-effective process. The top
\nprize should be on the order of $1 million. Each 10-acre
\ndemonstration should produce on the order of 100,000 gallons of
\nbiodiesel per year and a similar volume of animal feed while
\ncleaning millions of gallons of agricultural drainage and brackish
\nwater.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark E. Capron, of Ventura, is a professional engineer with the
\nVentura Regional Sanitation District.<\/p>\n

See also:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Small algae with great potential<\/a><\/p>\n

Oilgae – Oil & Biodiesel from Algae<\/a><\/b>
\nOilgae Blog<\/a><\/b>
\nalgOS – Biodiesel from Algae Open Source<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

About Oilgae – Oilgae – Oil & Biodiesel from Algae<\/a><\/b> has a focus on biodiesel production from algae while also discussing alternative energy in general. Algae present an exciting possibility as a feedstock for biodiesel, and when you realise that oil was originally formed from algae – among other related plants – you think “Hey! Why not oil again from algae!”<\/p>\n

To facilitate exploration of oil production from algae as well as exploration of other alternative energy avenues, Oilgae provides web links, directory, and related resources for algae-based biofuels \/ biodiesel along with inputs on new inventions, discoveries & breakthroughs in other alternative energy domains such as solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, hydrogen & fuel cells, gravitational, geothemal, human-powered, ocean & wave \/ tidal energy. We hope Oilgae proves to be useful as a research information & inputs resources, and as a source of news & info for business & trade of algal oil, algal fuels & new alternative energy products – specially with regard to new feedstock \/ feedstocks, production processes and uses, and market info such as price \/ prices, data & statistics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You are at: Oilgae Blog. Do you know that oil derived from algae is an exciting renewable fuel possibility? – see Oilgae for more. The key to new energy source lies in algae By Mark E. Capron, December 18, 2006 Thanks to Tom Catino @ Oil from Algae Yahoo Group for bringing this article to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algae-biodiesel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5273,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/5273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}