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Scientists turn algea into biofuel in minutes

Montecresto

Montecresto

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Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced that they have created a process that takes an enriched stew of algae and turns it into crude oil in minutes -- rather than millions of years. In a press release, PNNL stated, "In the PNNL process, a slurry of wet algae is pumped into the front end of a chemical reactor. Once the system is up and running, out comes crude oil in less than an hour, along with water and a byproduct stream of material containing phosphorus that can be recycled to grow more algae."

http://www.drudge.com/news/174952/scientists-turn-algae-into-biofuel-minutes


Exxon-Mobil probably won't be liking this.
 
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Montecresto said:
Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced that they have created a process that takes an enriched stew of algae and turns it into crude oil in minutes -- rather than millions of years. In a press release, PNNL stated, "In the PNNL process, a slurry of wet algae is pumped into the front end of a chemical reactor. Once the system is up and running, out comes crude oil in less than an hour, along with water and a byproduct stream of material containing phosphorus that can be recycled to grow more algae."

Scientists Turn Algae Into Biofuel in Minutes | Drudge Retort
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I'm very happy to hear they are progressing with this, but the process has been around for a decade and it didn't take a million years previously, but rather hours. The big part before was separating the oil from the starches and remaining biomass. It's really a great source for biodiesel since it grows just fine in brakish, non-potable water and actually cleans it, can be grown in a variety of climates and doesn't require agricultural land.

Thanks for posting this.
 
Good to know CB. Wonder why Drudge is treating this as breaking?
 
Montecresto said:
Good to know CB. Wonder why Drudge is treating this as breaking?
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Maybe because Drudge is an idiot, but hey, come to your own conclusions. Breaking News - scientists have confirmed, water is WET! :mrgreen:

Btw, this will give you an idea of how widespread usage already is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_algal_fuel_producers

On a side note, I read a report years ago about a CA city that was using an combo of bacteria and algae to treat their city sewerage. The yield was clean water, biodiesel, glycerin, and a kickass bound nitrogen fertilizer. I loved it because it makes for a complete cycle. Folks eat and then poop, the poop then becomes a super fertilizer without nitrogen bleed for the fields to grow more food, the water is purified, the glycerin is used to keep the transport pipes flowing without obstruction and the fuel is used to transport everything.
 
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Montecresto said:
Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced that they have created a process that takes an enriched stew of algae and turns it into crude oil in minutes -- rather than millions of years. In a press release, PNNL stated, "In the PNNL process, a slurry of wet algae is pumped into the front end of a chemical reactor. Once the system is up and running, out comes crude oil in less than an hour, along with water and a byproduct stream of material containing phosphorus that can be recycled to grow more algae."

Scientists Turn Algae Into Biofuel in Minutes | Drudge Retort


Exxon-Mobil probably won't be liking this.
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They probably won't...the again, they'd probably just buy up the technology.

I'm all for this. I heard about this type of thing and other methods of manufacturing crude oil for a few years now and it's the type of thing that I think we should be investing in to certain degrees. Our entire infrastructure is based off of oil at the moment. Actually converting our infrastructure to some other means of fuel as the primary method is something that will take over a decade and significant public buy-in...something not showing itself to be easy to get. Finding alternative means of gaining crude oil allows for the potential to bring the costs down, reduce our dependence on foreign countries, and create jobs. Win, win, win.
 
The military, the Navy in particular, has already gotten into this and the oil companies are big investors, as they are in solar and wind.
 
clownboy said:
Maybe because Drudge is an idiot, but hey, come to your own conclusions. Breaking News - scientists have confirmed, water is WET! :mrgreen:

Btw, this will give you an idea of how widespread usage already is.

List of algal fuel producers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On a side note, I read a report years ago about a CA city that was using an combo of bacteria and algae to treat their city sewerage. The yield was clean water, biodiesel, glycerin, and a kickass bound nitrogen fertilizer. I loved it because it makes for a complete cycle. Folks eat and then poop, the poop then becomes a super fertilizer without nitrogen bleed for the fields to grow more food, the water is purified, the glycerin is used to keep the transport pipes flowing without obstruction and the fuel is used to transport everything.
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Actually, it's up on Raw Story and a couple others too. Did ya have to go and throw Matt under the bus? :)
 
Montecresto said:
Actually, it's up on Raw Story and a couple others too. Did ya have to go and throw Matt under the bus? :)
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Under the bus? No, behind. drudge has been sucking on the exhaust fumes for ages now.
 
Deuce said:
Under the bus? No, behind. drudge has been sucking on the exhaust fumes for ages now.
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Does that mean his news stories are unreliable?
 
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Montecresto said:
Does that mean his news stories are unreliable?
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Carbon monoxide poisoning results in altered perceptions, impaired judgement, and loss of balance.
 
Deuce said:
Carbon monoxide poisoning results in altered perceptions, impaired judgement, and loss of balance.
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Ok so the Drudge report is little more than a news site that compiles and links to international and domestic news in the MSM. What's the point here?
 
Montecresto said:
Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced that they have created a process that takes an enriched stew of algae and turns it into crude oil in minutes -- rather than millions of years. In a press release, PNNL stated, "In the PNNL process, a slurry of wet algae is pumped into the front end of a chemical reactor. Once the system is up and running, out comes crude oil in less than an hour, along with water and a byproduct stream of material containing phosphorus that can be recycled to grow more algae."

Scientists Turn Algae Into Biofuel in Minutes | Drudge Retort


Exxon-Mobil probably won't be liking this.
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If it was workable, Exxon-Mobil would be doing it themselves.

I just wonder how much tax payer money was wasted on this.
 
apdst said:
If it was workable, Exxon-Mobil would be doing it themselves.

I just wonder how much tax payer money was wasted on this.
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Not as much as on Iraq, not to worry.
 
Montecresto said:
Ok so the Drudge report is little more than a news site that compiles and links to international and domestic news in the MSM. What's the point here?
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The headlines, on the other hand...
 
Deuce said:
The headlines, on the other hand...
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The headlines??? Carbon M.??? I don't know where your going dude. Did you spend some time behind the buss, lol.
 
Did you know Exon Mobile has put over $60,000,000 into researching algae use in making bio fuels ? It's one of those deductions that the capitalist haters love to scorn.


Montecresto said:
Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced that they have created a process that takes an enriched stew of algae and turns it into crude oil in minutes -- rather than millions of years. In a press release, PNNL stated, "In the PNNL process, a slurry of wet algae is pumped into the front end of a chemical reactor. Once the system is up and running, out comes crude oil in less than an hour, along with water and a byproduct stream of material containing phosphorus that can be recycled to grow more algae."

Scientists Turn Algae Into Biofuel in Minutes | Drudge Retort


Exxon-Mobil probably won't be liking this.
Click to expand...
 
Montecresto said:
Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced that they have created a process that takes an enriched stew of algae and turns it into crude oil in minutes -- rather than millions of years. In a press release, PNNL stated, "In the PNNL process, a slurry of wet algae is pumped into the front end of a chemical reactor. Once the system is up and running, out comes crude oil in less than an hour, along with water and a byproduct stream of material containing phosphorus that can be recycled to grow more algae."

Scientists Turn Algae Into Biofuel in Minutes | Drudge Retort

Exxon-Mobil probably won't be liking this.
Click to expand...

Nah, they'll probably just invest in it and look for a way to make money. Honestly, these companies don't care where there money comes from. Oil is oil after all. Just hope this doesn't end up causing the same mess that the biofuel from grain
 
Large scale. That's the goal. Transportation (and by that, I mean goods, we rely on trucking for the majority of our food and consumer goods) relies on crude oil, it will take god knows how long to ween off of that. Large scale production is the name of the game, not ideal lab situations.
 
But, will the resultant product replace all the other stuff we get from regular crude? Petrochemicals, asphalt, plastics... All those things that are the big ticket items that off set the cost of making gasoline and diesel?
 
keymanjim said:
But, will the resultant product replace all the other stuff we get from regular crude? Petrochemicals, asphalt, plastics... All those things that are the big ticket items that off set the cost of making gasoline and diesel?
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But it doesnt have to fulfill all those roles. You can start with residential power. And then commercial power.

You hopefully can translate it into fuel for transportation, like other biofuels.

If you do that, then you'd have plenty of crude oil for manufacturing
 
Hamster Buddha said:
Nah, they'll probably just invest in it and look for a way to make money. Honestly, these companies don't care where there money comes from. Oil is oil after all. Just hope this doesn't end up causing the same mess that the biofuel from grain
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I hope you are right...the oceans and esp tidal areas are more fragile than people think. But the corn focused biofuels damaged alot of other industries that depended on corn (financially). I dont think that would be the case with algae.
 
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