biofuels...

[PostmodernProphet]

an augment to a recent thread we had on ethanols....


http://www.goodcleantech.com/2009/01/seaweeds_could_be_used_for_eth.php

The patent pending method calls for the use of a specific enzyme to break down all types of seaweed into simple sugars to be processed into ethanol. The resulting biofuel is said to be cheaper than the ethanol available in the market today. To learn more about the marine-algae-to-biofuel patent, visit its official page.

and check this out...
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israeli-firm-seaweed-could-be-used-to-solve-energy-crisis-1.215553

The new technology unveiled by the firm at an international conference on marine biotechnology that opened on Sunday in Eilat, allows the industrial cultivation of seaweed through the use of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

Instead of allowing the polluting gas -one of the main contributors to global warming- to escape into the atmosphere, the gas passes through a filtration process and enters a pool, where it feeds microscopic seaweed. The seaweed is used to produce fuel.

According to the scientists who developed this technology, it is possible to produce a liter of fuel for every five kilograms of seaweed.

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/06/02/seaweed-asias-magic-bioenergy-feedstock/

First Seaweed-Based Biofuel Plant Goes Ahead In Chile

The Chilean economic Development Corporation (CORFO) has announced an investment of 7 million US dollars towards a seaweed-based bio-ethanol project spearheaded by the Seattle-based Bio Architecture Lab (BAL), in collaboration with the Universidad de Los Lagos and Chilean oil company ENAP. The project’s ambitious goal is to produce an annual 165 million litres of bio-fuel, equivalent to 5% of Chile’s petrol consumption. Plans to install a small test plant in Puerto Montt are set for this year.

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/04/09/salt-water-the-tangy-taste-of-energy-freedom/

According to SES, growing seaweed in farms covering an area of just less than 0.05 percent of Europe’s coastal regions would yield a yearly production of 75 million tons of seaweed. This biomass could be converted into an estimated 846 Mgy (3.2 billion litters) of ethanol.

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/04/09/salt-water-the-tangy-taste-of-energy-freedom/

In January in Mexico, Biofields announced that it will commence construction this month on its pilot-scale algae-to-ethanol facility in Sonora, at Puerto Libertas, approximately 2 miles from the municipality of Pitiquito. The company is developing the project in partnership with Algenol, and said that it expects to complete the project in the second half of 2010. The project will use salt-water from the Sea of Cortes, as well as industrial CO2 from the adjacent power plant operated by CFE.

 

[DamnYankee]

Making fuel from waste products and plants grown in areas that are not farms is a great idea. Using food for fuel or covering farmland with solar panels are both dumb ideas.

 

[Neon Kokugen]

SeaWeed and algea are growing in huge popularity to become the biggest fuel source in the next era after oil. I just hope we get this freaking idea off the ground.

 

[DamnYankee]

Of course its off the ground; its in the water...