Exploring Microalgae as Solutions to Global Fuel Issues

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh yes, as for units, we also get varying units of energy as well as differing units for solar flux, so the literature can be a bit of a mine field in this regard.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This sounds like it could be a huge breakthrough. I was aware of the work in principle but don't know any specifics related to processing efficiency. They claim to use the sugar from standard food-friendly biomass sources to grow the algae very quickly without the need for sunlight. In effect, they collect the solar energy stored in other plant sources in the form of sugars, and use that to grow the algae. They even mention using switchgrass.

There is a brief video. I haven't had the time to investigate further yet.

South San Francisco, Calif. - January 22, 2008 - Solazyme, Inc., a synthetic biology company unleashing the power of aquatic microbes to create clean and scalable solutions for biofuel, industrial chemical, and health and wellness markets, today revealed the first ever algae-derived biodiesel fuel (SoladieselTM) to have undergone road testing by successfully powering a factory-standard automobile for long distances under typical driving conditions. The car and fuel are making their public debuts at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where they are also featured in Fields of Fuel, Josh Tickell's documentary about renewable fuels. Soladiesel biodiesel is clean, renewable, environmentally sustainable and scalable.

The algal biodiesel fueling the car is made through Solazyme's proprietary process for manufacturing high-value, functionally-tailored oils from algae. This process, which uses standard industrial fermentation equipment, yields a biofuel that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is biodegradable, nontoxic and safe. Solazyme is currently producing thousands of gallons of algal oil and recently signed a biodiesel feedstock development and testing agreement with Chevron Technology Ventures, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc.

"Biodiesel from algae changes the landscape of renewable fuels," said Jonathan Wolfson, chief executive officer of Solazyme. "The concept of algal biofuel has been discussed for decades, and Solazyme's technology finally provides a scalable solution based on proven industrial processes. This fuel is just the first example of how algal oil will help the environment through new products that offer attractive economics and performance, as well as environmental benefits."

Soladiesel exceeds both the requirements of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) biodiesel standard D6751 and EN 14214, the European standard, which ensures that biodiesel can safely run any existing diesel engine. The car demonstrating Solazyme's biofuel at Sundance is running on its original, factory-standard diesel engine with no modifications, and is powered by the highest blend of biodiesel that engine manufacturers currently certify. By operating in the typical sub-freezing temperatures for the area in January, it also illustrates how Soladiesel provides better temperature properties than any traditional biodiesel.

"In demonstrating this new fuel alternative, we're responding to the need for a near-term solution that will also be cost effective and sustainable," added Harrison Dillon, president and chief technology officer of Solazyme. "Our technology combines all the key components: low carbon footprint, environmental sustainability, certified compatibility with existing vehicles and infrastructure, and energy security for our country."

###

About Solazyme:

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Solazyme is a leading biotechnology company focused on synthetic biology for the renewable bioproduction of fuels, industrial oleochemicals, and health and wellness ingredients from marine microbes. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.solazyme.com.

http://www.solazyme.com/news080122.shtml

I saw a report on this on the PBS Newshour tonight.

 

[Andre]

I don't know. The guy on the clip says:

...We actually feed sugar to the algae. They are thousand times more productive making oil when you feed them sugar than feeding them sunlight. The process runs non food feedstocks like corn stoves, switchgrass, wood chips...

Sounds fine, but the corn the grass and the wood took already their share of producing latent energy from sunlight. So that "thousand times" sounds misleading, looking at the total energy values. This is only cycling the already existing energy. There is actually no additional use of sunlight energy as for instance would have been possible if you'd cultivate algae with photosynthesis in desert type of areas with lots of sun, but unsuitable to grow crop.

Secondly, waste of corn, grass, wood has an essential role in the carbon cycle, as a biologic fertilizer. If you remove too much of that the biologic production will reduce and biotopes may degrade. It may be disturbing the balance in the biologic cycles.

Also if you can make sugar from corn grass and wood, you can also feed people with that.

 

[Andre]

Coming to think about, using deserts, you could actually create a win-win situation, crop and biofuel.

You would need a pipeline, bringing sea water into solar stills, where the algae are cultivated At the same time you can use the condensed water from the stills to irrigate adjacent terrain and grow appropriate crops.

 

[mheslep]

I don't know. The guy on the clip says:



Sounds fine, but the corn the grass and the wood took already their share of producing latent energy from sunlight. So that "thousand times" sounds misleading, looking at the total energy values. This is only cycling the already existing energy. There is actually no additional use of sunlight energy as for instance would have been possible if you'd cultivate algae with photosynthesis in desert type of areas with lots of sun, but unsuitable to grow crop.

Secondly, waste of corn, grass, wood has an essential role in the carbon cycle, as a biologic fertilizer. If you remove too much of that the biologic production will reduce and biotopes may degrade. It may be disturbing the balance in the biologic cycles.

Also if you can make sugar from corn grass and wood, you can also feed people with that.

Cellulosic based ethanol is an upcoming and almost viable technology; the enzyme conversion is apparently the economic hangup. If this algae scheme is thought of as just another method of converting cellulosic stock to fuel, diesel oil in this case, with the algae acting as the single organism converter then this appears viable. There are 80 some million acres of ethanol corn in the US, convert that to switch grass and there's enough energy captured therein to replace the US oil usage as shown elsewhere in this thread, depending of the efficiency of the algae process. Switch grass eliminates the food/fuel problem too.

 

[Andre]

There are 80 some million acres of ethanol corn in the US, convert that to switch grass and there's enough energy captured therein to replace the US oil usage as shown elsewhere in this thread, depending of the efficiency of the algae process. Switch grass eliminates the food/fuel problem too.

I'm not sure how closely we are talking along each other here (definition of communication). If you can grow corn or switch grass, you could produce food from that. Biofuel should not compete with food. Those 80 some million of acres should prevent this:.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_food.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6481029.stm

 

[baywax]

I'm not sure how closely we are talking along each other here (definition of communication). If you can grow corn or switch grass, you could produce food from that. Biofuel should not compete with food. Those 80 some million of acres should prevent this:.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_food.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6481029.stm

Good idea Andre.

We just got an order from the CDN govt that all liquid fuel, namely gas and diesel, has to be 5% or better ethanol or biodiesel by 2010. Now, its a nice step on the surface, but, somehow, I get the feeling their pandering to the agricultural voter base here. And like you say, we're burning people's food so we can dash about in our Lambourginis or be hip in the Hummer. We've got a company, Husky/Mohawk, that has added 10 percent ethanol since the beginning of time so its not hard to pull off. They use Cannola or a Genetically Modified version thereof as their source. Cannola is not necessarily a food product but it is competing for acreage with Wheat and other food crops. We don't have much desert here, mostly just lots of good agricultural land and mountains. Then there's Toronto...

 

[mheslep]

I'm not sure how closely we are talking along each other here (definition of communication). If you can grow corn or switch grass, you could produce food from that. Biofuel should not compete with food. Those 80 some million of acres should prevent this.

Well it is not clear to me. Switchgrass is of course a non-food stock so in one sense it is decoupled from the food supply. But then, as I think you are saying, it also uses some finite amount of land which may/may not be displacing food producing crops. IIRC switch grass doesn't require much in the way of tilled farm land so that is another decoupler.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Note also that they claim that their biodiesel is much better than biodiesel obtained by conventional means. They even claim to beat the low temp problem, which would be huge! It sounded to me like they have a cloud point that is no worse than petrodiesel. So it would seem that they are doing some "other things" not specifically discussed.

But again, I've seen claims like this come and go for decades. I have to wonder about the efficiency of the entire process. The energy collection and conversion efficiency of algae is hard to beat because they are microscopic and very simple. Geometrically, they would seem to maximize the use of the land or water area since we get 100% coverage, and they would seem to produce far more usable fuel per pound of fiber than other plants. Consider that the highest algae yields are 80% oil by weight. Typical yields for competitive strains are 50% oil by weight. But by using carbohydrates from biomass to grow the algae, we now have a solar to carbohydrate to oil conversion.

So specifically:

What is the land area [of alternative biomass sources] required to yield the energy obtained from one acre of algae - both in gross yields, and ultimately from plant to tank?

a) How much energy is required to harvest and process the biomass used to feed the algae.

b) How much energy is required to grow and process the algae.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Also, can their process be adapted to process algae grown by conventional methods? And how do those numbers look?

 

[OmCheeto]

Also, can their process be adapted to process algae grown by conventional methods? And how do those numbers look?

According to the numbers I ran today, all I need is a 4 foot eave extension algae farm on my house to produce all the algae-oil I'll need for the rest of my life. Has anyone looked into simply turning dehydrated algae slime into a burnable fuel, with no processing? Kind of like a greasy fuel pellet?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

According to the numbers I ran today, all I need is a 4 foot eave extension algae farm on my house to produce all the algae-oil I'll need for the rest of my life.

Then you must live a very energy-frugal lifestyle. Even a generous estimate indicates a yield of less than 200 gallons per year.

Has anyone looked into simply turning dehydrated algae slime into a burnable fuel, with no processing? Kind of like a greasy fuel pellet?

Yes, algae can be burned directly as biomass. There are some applications where this may make sense, but I can tell you that drying the algae is an issue.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Another algae story in the news.

...A number of pilot plants scheduled to come online in the next several months will likely give the most accurate glimpse of algae's future: how much oil it can produce, how soon and whether it will live up to its promise. GreenFuel, one of the oldest names in algae, already operates a pilot plant in Arizona, where it houses algae in large, clear plastic bags. Solix will break ground this summer on a new plant in Colorado, growing algae in what are essentially 325-ft.-long, 1.5-ft.-high freezer pops, suspended vertically in shallow pools; a smaller array, with eight 65-ft.-long bioreactors, has entered production in recent weeks. HR BioPetroleum, which signed a deal with Shell last year to produce biodiesel from algae, is currently building a pilot plant in Hawaii using a "hybrid system"—growth begins in long, clear, horizontal tubes before being dumped into open ponds to multiply further. Blitzing the ponds with algae for a short time has the advantage of rendering species invasion a nonissue, the company says.[Haha, that is one that I figured out as well]

"The jury is out on all of them—nobody has fully demonstrated that their system is going to be affordable and scalable, and be robust in terms of operations and maintenance and the ability to produce a large amount of oil routinely," says Ron Pate, a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories who evaluated algal oil in conjunction with DARPA's jet fuel project last year. "There are a lot of naysayers out there, and that's fine. It's good to be skeptical. But at the same time, I think there's enough promise with algae that it needs to be given a better shot than what's been done in the past."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4266137.html?series=19

 

[OmCheeto]

Then you must live a very energy-frugal lifestyle. Even a generous estimate indicates a yield of less than 200 gallons per year.

200 gallons per acre per year?
The lowest estimate to date I've seen has been 5000 gallons.
Am I in the correct thread?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

How many square feet of growing area are we talking about?

A reasonable expectation is to get 5000 gallons per acre-year.

 

[Andre]

Well it is not clear to me. Switchgrass is of course a non-food stock so in one sense it is decoupled from the food supply. But then, as I think you are saying, it also uses some finite amount of land which may/may not be displacing food producing crops. IIRC switch grass doesn't require much in the way of tilled farm land so that is another decoupler.

That's the idea, indeed. Switch grass is the basis of the prairy biotope and part of a food chain, remove it in big quantities and you basically kill the biotope. This also because you remove the main fertilizer, it's own decaying remains.

Therefore land should be use with the most marginal biotopes, like deserts

 

[Andre]

Let's try again for some rough order of magnitude production results.

Check:
http://algaetobioenergy.wordpress.com/

See that the south USA receives about 200-250 w/m2 basic sunlight. According to the article, photosynthesis in algea can take about 10% of that, 20-25 w/m2, converted to chemical latent energy in the biomass. If we assume that 50% of that is oil then we are down to 10 W/m2

According to this one kg of oil is worth some 5 * 10⁷ joules worth of energy, So it would take 5 * 10⁶ seconds to produce the equivalent of that, which is about 6 liters per year per square meter, or about 25000 liters per acre or some 7000 gallon per acre. Indeed not unreasonable.

 

[OmCheeto]

How many square feet of growing area are we talking about?

544 square feet.

A reasonable expectation is to get 5000 gallons per acre-year.

5000 gal/acre * 1 acre/43,560 ft^2 = 0.115 gal/ft^2 yr

544 ft^2 * 0.115 gal/ft^2 yr = 62.4 gallons / yr

Minimum annual driving = 5000 miles

mpg required = 5000 miles/62.4 gallons = ooops! 77.5 mpg

Moped here I come!

I guess by "all the algae-oil I'll need for the rest of my life", I was implying just automotive needs.

hmmm... Increasing the eave to 6ft and getting a higher octane grade of algae(7500gal/yr) yields a requirement of only 32.5 mpg. That looks better.

With clear polycarbonate at $2/ft^2, my 6 ft eave would cost about $3400 with framing and nuts and bolts. With my current gas needs at $1200/yr. That's a payback time of about 3 years.

I hope the base algae oil numbers are correct. I'd hate to invest that money and only get a huge slimy green deck cover...

 

[Andre]

Perhaps check out some European cars:

The Peugeot 308 currently holds the record of the most fuel efficient mainstream car, averaging 3.13 L/100 km (75 mpg–U.S. / 90 mpg–imp) over a distance of 14,580 kilometres (9,060 mi)

57 MPG in my version: Picking it up next week.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

544 square feet.


5000 gal/acre * 1 acre/43,560 ft^2 = 0.115 gal/ft^2 yr

544 ft^2 * 0.115 gal/ft^2 yr = 62.4 gallons / yr

Minimum annual driving = 5000 miles

mpg required = 5000 miles/62.4 gallons = ooops! 77.5 mpg

Moped here I come!

I guess by "all the algae-oil I'll need for the rest of my life", I was implying just automotive needs.

hmmm... Increasing the eave to 6ft and getting a higher octane grade of algae(7500gal/yr) yields a requirement of only 32.5 mpg. That looks better.

With clear polycarbonate at $2/ft^2, my 6 ft eave would cost about $3400 with framing and nuts and bolts. With my current gas needs at $1200/yr. That's a payback time of about 3 years.

I hope the base algae oil numbers are correct. I'd hate to invest that money and only get a huge slimy green deck cover...

Don't forget about a centrifuge, press, and equipment and chemicals needed for the biodiesel reaction. A very small desktop centrifuge sells for about $5000. Then I think the 1 micron perf basket is another couple of thousand dollars. A small desktop press is a little over a grand, but this may be very inefficient at removing the oil, so you have to reduce expectation for the yield accordingly. Then one has to allow for mutations, disease, and invasive strains. One approach here is to constantly provide a fresh charge of algae to the bioreactor, but this requires highly regulated incubators. Also, the bioreactor itself requires the proper amount of light - not too much, not too little - and it must be temperature controlled. Typically, it also requires circulation of the water, aeration, and for accelerated growth [the high yields], an additional source of CO2. One also has to allow for the nutrient requirements - NPK. The algae collection process must be considered. One also has to allow for the energy required to run all of this.

You will need tanks and pumps for, dewatering the oil, the biodiesel conversion process, and storage. Keep in mind that biodiesel has a limited shelf life. You will also need the chemicals needed for the transesterification. So again we have to factor in additional financial and energy costs.

And not to be taken lightly, there is a large mass of de-oiled algae fiber to contend with.

Note also that not all forms of algae produce the triglycerides needed for transesterification, so the strain must be not only a good producer of oil, but also a good producer of the right kind of oil. The fuel quality will vary according the ratio of various fatty acids in the oil from different algae strains. You will also have a byproduct of glycerin, which is saleable, but since the BD craze started, the bottom has fallen out of the glycerin market.

On the up side [generally speaking], I am told by someone "in the know" that you can readily sell all of the oil that you can produce, and for a good price - at that time, last December, it was about $2 a gallon.

 

[wildman]

If Hubbert is right about peak oil occurring very soon (and he has always been right in the past), I would say there is A LOT of money to be made here. I am talking trillions of dollars. With that kind of incentive, these problems should be broken quickly. The problem in the past has always been cheap oil. Why invest in biofuels when oil is essentially free? That looks like it is over or nearly over. Time to make some fortunes, yea Ivan?

 

[PRDan4th]

Hey fellas! I don't think this is something you want to do in your backyard! I have a 7 acre pond that mucks up with algae every summer and causes problems with everything. The cost of a collection and processing plant would be expensive and production is seasonal (Summer only). The stink of drying muck would have your neighbors loving you!

This may be a good idea but should be tied into a good reliable source of CO2 and warm water. A coal fired power plant would be perfect! The cooling pond aerated with flue gas for carbon sequestration and algae growing seems to be the best large plant location. A biofuel plant located on an adjacent site across the pond process the algae into liquid fuels. The residual fiberous waste could be blended with coal and fed to the power plant.

 

[mheslep]

Don't forget about a centrifuge, press,

So Algae requires both? Looking at other BF stocks like soy one only needs a press, apparently.

and equipment and chemicals needed for the biodiesel reaction. A very small desktop centrifuge sells for about $5000. Then I think the 1 micron perf basket is another couple of thousand dollars. A small desktop press is a little over a grand, but this may be very inefficient at removing the oil, so you have to reduce expectation for the yield accordingly. Then one has to allow for mutations, disease, and invasive strains. One approach here is to constantly provide a fresh charge of algae to the bioreactor, but this requires highly regulated incubators. Also, the bioreactor itself requires the proper amount of light - not too much, not too little - and it must be temperature controlled. Typically, it also requires circulation of the water, aeration, and for accelerated growth [the high yields], an additional source of CO2. One also has to allow for the nutrient requirements - NPK. The algae collection process must be considered. One also has to allow for the energy required to run all of this.

You will need tanks and pumps for, dewatering the oil, the biodiesel conversion process, and storage. Keep in mind that biodiesel has a limited shelf life. You will also need the chemicals needed for the transesterification. So again we have to factor in additional financial and energy costs.

And not to be taken lightly, there is a large mass of de-oiled algae fiber to contend with.

Note also that not all forms of algae produce the triglycerides needed for transesterification, so the strain must be not only a good producer of oil, but also a good producer of the right kind of oil. The fuel quality will vary according the ratio of various fatty acids in the oil from different algae strains. You will also have a byproduct of glycerin, which is saleable, but since the BD craze started, the bottom has fallen out of the glycerin market.

Thanks much for this summary! Hopefully now I don't have to plow through the entire Aquatic Species Program report to get the main points.

On the up side [generally speaking], I am told by someone "in the know" that you can readily sell all of the oil that you can produce, and for a good price - at that time, last December, it was about $2 a gallon.

Hmm. Well w/ petrol diesel at $4.5 / gallon why isn't this taking off? I would think farmers especially would be digging in here: they're already big diesel users ($5.8B/year), they have the land available, and their fuel usage would drop off in cold months when algae has problems. Of course much soy diesel is already made but the yield per acre year is comparatively tiny.

 

[mheslep]

Here are the numbers on exactly how tiny in this BD for on farms report, Pg 14 (attached below)
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/biodiesel_on_farm.pdf

I also note that algae only gets a one page mention in this report.

 

[mheslep]

... and for accelerated growth [the high yields], an additional source of CO2. ...

...This may be a good idea but should be tied into a good reliable source of CO2 and warm water. A coal fired power plant would be perfect! ...

Yes a good CO2 source appears to be one of the more significant problems for small scale algae BF. Another way to look at the Solazyme approach is that it solves that problem by supplying the carbon through the added cellulose. Perhaps this is the big breakthrough that farmers have needed to effectively use algae BF. Previously they didn't have flu gas from a convenient coal plant on every farm. Also, I would think Solazyme approach would allow an enclosed bioreactor since CO2 is not(?) required and the cold weather problem could be solved as well.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hey fellas! I don't think this is something you want to do in your backyard! I have a 7 acre pond that mucks up with algae every summer and causes problems with everything. The cost of a collection and processing plant would be expensive and production is seasonal (Summer only). The stink of drying muck would have your neighbors loving you!

This may be a good idea but should be tied into a good reliable source of CO2 and warm water. A coal fired power plant would be perfect! The cooling pond aerated with flue gas for carbon sequestration and algae growing seems to be the best large plant location. A biofuel plant located on an adjacent site across the pond process the algae into liquid fuels. The residual fiberous waste could be blended with coal and fed to the power plant.

For the reasons that you mention and based the literature, in my opinion it is well established that open systems are typically not a viable option. Cost effective bioreactors and processing techniques are the essential challenge. Of course, as the price of fuel continues to rise, the field of options continues to expand.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So Algae requires both? Looking at other BF stocks like soy one only needs a press, apparently.

First the algae has to be separated from the water, which is the difference between processing algae, and something like soy. A centrifuge is usually used for this, but there are other techniques, such as ultrasonic separation.

Thanks much for this summary! Hopefully now I don't have to plow through the entire Aquatic Species Program report to get the main points.

I would say that is more a thumbnail sketch than a summary.

Hmm. Well w/ petrol diesel at $4.5 / gallon why isn't this taking off? I would think farmers especially would be digging in here: they're already big diesel users ($5.8B/year), they have the land available, and their fuel usage would drop off in cold months when algae has problems. Of course much soy diesel is already made but the yield per acre year is comparatively tiny.

Well, back in December I think diesel was selling around here for a little over $3. All in all, I suspect that we are seeing the new gold rush begin... or should I say green rush? But then we are quickly learning that green is gold.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If Hubbert is right about peak oil occurring very soon (and he has always been right in the past), I would say there is A LOT of money to be made here. I am talking trillions of dollars. With that kind of incentive, these problems should be broken quickly. The problem in the past has always been cheap oil. Why invest in biofuels when oil is essentially free? That looks like it is over or nearly over. Time to make some fortunes, yea Ivan?

I have checked on this, and based on numbers from the DOE for 1998, the wholesale market for fossil fuel power - coal, natural gas, petro - is about 1 trillion dollars per year, with petro accounting for about half of that. So with the price of fuel today, I would think that 1 trillion a year is a minimum and that the real price is approaching 2 trillion.

This is only for the USA. If we factor in China and India...

 

[OmCheeto]

Gulp. Ok. This is not a backyard project. I now estimate a minimum $200,000 investment to be economical.

http://www.bioking.nl/how_to_make_biodiesel.htm
Basically confirmed Ivan's statements that there's more to biodiesel than just squeezing the fat out of the little buggers.

http://www.bioking.nl/index.html
The BioKing-Pro is a High Tec biodiesel production plants that produce fast and easy 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) per day prime quality biodiesel.

27k euro = $42k

I re-ran the numbers to include 27 of my neighbors and concluded that we could produce enough raw oil in a year to run the BioKing-Pro for about a day. This was with a continuous closed system from one end of the block to the other, covering 37,000 ft^2. (16ft x .44miles)

The return on investment was about 10 years at $5/gal.

Hmmmm... 7600 homes would be required to generate the raw oil for just one BioKing.
Probably be near impossible to get a buy in on that kind of scale.

I wonder if they have a mini-me version.


On another note:

Yes a good CO2 source appears to be one of the more significant problems for small scale algae BF.

Beer is the answer.

Not only am I a total nerd, but I used to make my own beer. Back in April of 1990, I determined that my 5 gallons of beer produced 440 liters of CO2 during the 2 week course of fermentation. Assuming of course that all the gas was CO2.
(graph and raw data available on request)

hmmmm...

Do you think that people with hydrocarbon heated homes will one day be required to pump their effluent back to a central processing station, much like the way we deal with our poo?
This CO2 laden gas could then be pumped through an Algae farm, a la MIT.

Actually, they could just pump it into one of the neighborhood farms. The algae could be collected and piped to a central processing station.

 

[mheslep]

OmCheeto you are a true visionary

 

[OmCheeto]

OmCheeto you are a true visionary

Are you making fun of me or are you serious?

If you are serious then I would advise not encouraging me, as I can imagineer for hours. If you're making fun of me then you should just tell me I'm insane. It's ok. I'm used to it.

Ok. I'll continue my insane visionary rant:

The stink of drying muck would have your neighbors loving you!

I'm a river rat, and have covered my body in live algae. Algae does not stink. The stench was probably due to the algae dying, and bacteria had taken over. Ivan is correct in that this needs to be a closed system.

This may be a good idea but should be tied into a good reliable source of CO2 and warm water. A coal fired power plant would be perfect! The cooling pond aerated with flue gas for carbon sequestration and algae growing seems to be the best large plant location. A biofuel plant located on an adjacent site across the pond process the algae into liquid fuels. The residual fiberous waste could be blended with coal and fed to the power plant.

MIT answered that rhetorical statement.

hmmm... mheslep. Are you a beer drinker?

How much CO2 does algae require to really thrive? (moles per little bugger per second)

Should I put on a mask at night to fuel them?
Should I collect the exhaust gas from my car? (I collected the numbers this morning, but have yet to run the them.)

Is CO2 really a problem? Or is it the solution?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Is CO2 really a problem? Or is it the solution?

It is important to remember that any added CO2 [not ambient] used to grow algae is ultimately released and added to the atmospheric CO2 resevoir when the biodiesel is burned. So, ideally we only want sources that are unavoidable CO2 producers that are not otherwise sequestered or scrubbed. But as you demonstrated, there are many large producers of CO2. And I can tell you that there are some other tricks that might be considered, but for now I'm not talking.

 

[mheslep]

Are you making fun of me or are you serious?

I was applauding your imaginative beer based solution! Wish I had thought of it myself.

 

[mheslep]

Gulp. Ok. This is not a backyard project. I now estimate a minimum $200,000 investment to be economical.

http://www.bioking.nl/how_to_make_biodiesel.htm ...

Another annoying problem for the do it your-selfer, as I just discovered from a friend at EPA: the backyard project is illegal. That is, as soon as you put your 'home brew' in your vehicle and hit the public roads, its illegal. Apparently one needs approval from EPA first, not a trivial pursuit. EPA's contention is burden of proof is on you to first demonstrate that said home brew does not contain some bad juju.

Edit: Same EPA friend tells me the bottom is recently dropping out of the Bio-diesel business (traditional soy, etc based). Why I can only speculate.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What do you mean by the bottom dropping out?

Nearbio.com lists 1599 operating biodiesel stations. Oregon just mandated that all diesel will be a minimum of B5. Washington is all B2.