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143 comments on Biofuel Conference Call Including a New Biodiesel from Algae

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advancednano on August 22, 2008 - 11:30am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Japanese brewer made superyeast for breaking down cellulose
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/08/japanese-sake-brewer-makes-cellulose.html

Some seem to indicate that the 1.3 billion tons of cellulostic plant material could make 4 billion barrels of oil.
This translates to 65% of American oil consumption.

Huber, National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Energy titled "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels,"

Garbage conversion to fuel. Target commercialization by 2010. 2.5 billion gallons/year by 2022.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/08/gasoline-produced-from-biomass-in-cars....

The University of Virginia team hypothesizes that feeding the algae more carbon dioxide and organic material could boost the oil yield to as much as 40 percent by weight. If this pans out 27 billion tons of CO2 from fossil fuel plants can be used to boost algae oil yields.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/08/feeding-algae-carbon-dioxide-and.html

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souperman2 on August 22, 2008 - 11:50am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

That 1.3 billion tons of cellulostic plant material is a one shot deal.

Next time around its 6 billion tons, then 3 billion, then desert.

OK slight egzageration but you get the idea.

OBTW food production would follow the same path.

We need to ramp up the ramping down process.

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tonyw on August 22, 2008 - 1:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Craig Ventner reckons they can create 4th generation fuels, i.e. synthetic microorganisms that will produce alternative fuels, such as ethanol or hydrogen from a CO2 foodstock plus sunlight. He thinks we can have this in less than 18 months! With his usual high level of confidence in himself (and team) he says this will replace the petro-chemical industry.

We seem to be getting close to having the capability to create complex molecules, and even to create them for specific uses.

Best hopes for a sustainable future.

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Gwydion on August 22, 2008 - 4:43pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Repeat after me, "EROEI EROEI EROEI EROEI EROEI." If the media and culture conditions for the organism costs more energy than the the petroleum products you get out then it won't be replacing anything. When we previously discussed this on TOD, the guy who was leading the project said he needed to sell his by-products before he could market his organism. That says low EROEI to me.

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SamuM on August 23, 2008 - 2:22am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I really hope C. Venter is right. However, I find it curious he thinks he can do it in 18 months, when the evolution could not make them in 4 billion years. Just based on computational time alone, I think his team is just way out of time.

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NeverLNG on August 23, 2008 - 10:21am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Is C Venter smarter than God? I don't know, ask him.

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Cretaceous on August 24, 2008 - 10:31am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I asked Him, and he doesn't know who C Venter is...
;-)

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Gail the Actuary on August 23, 2008 - 11:53am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

This is a website that seems to be on something similar. I don't know about the timeframe, though.

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kdolliso on August 23, 2008 - 12:26pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

It looks to me like that operation would keep, maybe, 100,000 high-mileage cars on the road.

That's a big wind-farm. How many Prius's would 240 Meawatts fuel if you went straight to the grid.

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weatherman on August 24, 2008 - 5:59pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Evolution didn't do it because it had no reason to. What is the competative advantage to survival for a microbe in producing biofuel?

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barrett on August 22, 2008 - 11:58pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

1.3 billion tons at around 13.6 MMbtu/ton for cellulosic biomass is about 17.6 quads for the dry feedstock. Optimistically you can get maybe 10 quads of liquids from that. We use about 40 quads liquids, around 27 for transportation. Arguably better to consume it in Robert Rapier's Personal Biomass Reactors to displace natural gas and heating oil for which we use about 11 quads of the two resources in residential and commercial applications.

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tomc on August 23, 2008 - 6:52am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

How about we move about 1.6 kg of uranium around the country to get the same amount of energy available ...

You have a bike ? That should (literally) do.

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143 comments on Biofuel Conference Call Including a New Biodiesel from Algae

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