Comments - 7

• MiaFranceska wrote:
  Sat October 30 2010 12:23:33 AM

  
  

  If you want to drive a change in the wider energy mix, start with the navy. That was the case when Winston Churchill helped spur a boom in oil demand by switching the British navy from coal to oil. Now the US navy may be about to do the same with algae.
  
  The Guardian reports today that the US navy has just carried out its first successful test on a boat powered 50 per cent by diesel and 50 per cent by algae.
  
  
  According to the paper:
  
  The tests, conducted on Friday, are part of a broader drive within the navy to run 50% of its fleet on a mix of renewable fuels and nuclear power by 2020. The navy currently meets about 16% of its energy and fuel needs from nuclear power, with the rest from conventional sources.
  
  The navy plans to roll out its first green strike force, a group of about 10 ships, submarines and planes running on a mix of biofuels and nuclear power, in 2012, with deployment in the field scheduled for 2016.
  
  If it can work technically, it makes economic sense. A $10 rise in the price of petrol costs the whole military an estimated $600m a year. And with the military?s own forceasts suggesting surplus oil production could disappear as early as 2012, it is not surprising that the navy has decided to act.
  
  I wouldn?t hold your breath for this to be the first move in a global switch to biofuels. The military itself says: ?Biofuels are unlikely to contribute more than 1% of global energy requirements by the 2030s.?
  
  But as for the navy?s potentially historic test? According to a navy spokesman:
  
  It ran just fine.
  

  http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2010/10/28/could-the-us-navy-drive-a-switch-to-algae-power/
  

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• Jacintha wrote:
  Sat October 30 2010 12:27:56 AM
   
  This is an article from Gaurdian. The Sanfrancisco company theyare talking about is 
  Solazyme.
  
  
  ----------------------------------------
  
  
  A machine producing biodiesel from algae, a fuel type used to successfully power a US gunboat for the first time. 
  It looked like a pretty ordinary day on the water at the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia: a few short bursts of speed, a nice tail wind, some test manoeuvres against an enemy boat.
  
  
  
  
  
  But the 49ft gunboat had algae-based fuel in the tank in a test hailed by the navy yesterday as a milestone in its creation of a new, energy-saving strike force.
  
  
  The experimental boat, intended for use in rivers and marshes and eventually destined for oil installations in the Middle East, operated on a 50/50 mix of algae-based fuel and diesel. "It ran just fine," said Rear Admiral Philip Cullom, who directs the navy's sustainability division.
  
  
  The tests, conducted on Friday, are part of a broader drive within the navy to run 50% of its fleet on a mix of renewable fuels and nuclear power by 2020. The navy currently meets about 16% of its energy and fuel needs from nuclear power, with the rest from conventional sources.
  
  
  The navy plans to roll out its first green strike force, a group of about 10 ships, submarines and planes running on a mix of biofuels and nuclear power, in 2012, with deployment in the field scheduled for 2016.
  
  
  The green trend runs across all military services. The air force has been testing jet engines on a mix of conventional fuels and camelina, a crop similar to flax, and the Marine Corps recently sent a company to Afghanistan's Helmand province equipped with portable solar panels and solar chargers for their radio equipment.
  
  
  Fuels made from algae oil burn more cleanly than fossil fuel, but preventing climate change is not a major factor in the Pentagon's calculations. "Our programme to go green is about combat capability, first and foremost," Cullom said. "We no longer want to be held hostage by one form of energy such as petroleum."
  
  
  Over the last year, the Pentagon has become increasingly vocal about the burden of running oil convoys in battle zones. Fossil fuel is the number one import to US troops in Afghanistan, and the slow and lumbering convoys of oil tankers are an obvious target for enemy combatants.
  
  
  Fossil fuels are also horrendously expensive. By the time it reaches a war zone, the true cost of a gallon of petrol is well over $400.
  
  
  In theory, biofuels can be produced wherever the raw materials are available, possibly even in the combat zone. However, Cullom admitted that, as of today, algae-based fuels are no bargain. The current cost of a gallon of algae-diesel mix is $424 a gallon.
  
  
  Any time you are an early adopter, it's not going to be $3 a gallon, he said.
  
  
  The early versions of algae-based fuels had a short shelf life, with the fuel separating in the tank, sprouting, or even corroding engines. They had some not very good characteristics at the end of the day, he admitted.
  
  
  But the navy appears committed. Last month it placed an order for 150,000 gallons of algae-based fuel from a San Francisco firm.

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• Harita wrote:
  Sat October 30 2010 02:52:39 AM

  interesting and good news with differing views. But Ithink we need to spend more money till such time commercialisation settles down.

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• ArjunAsrani wrote:
  Sat October 30 2010 03:54:33 AM

  1:Like to knowfollowing:

  2: Any work is done in developing oil from waste paper using bio technology / Algae etc

  3: What is current approx cost of production of the bio deisel in US and the cost if produced in India?

  4: Is the process possible domestically in small vats within houses?.  

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• Natalia wrote:
  Mon November 01 2010 01:42:27 PM

  @ Arjun Asrani

  
  
  YOu need to post this as a blog. Not as a comment in anohter blog.
  
  
  More news on the Navy front.
  http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/26/navy-boat-uses-algae-based-fuel-on-way-to-green-fleet/

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• Natalia wrote:
  Mon November 01 2010 01:43:48 PM

  http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/10/27/2134149/military-govt-increase-investment.html

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