Pond scum to the rescue?

Denver Post ^ | 07/05/2008 | unknown

[ovrtaxt]

Sure, I can see that. Why not?

Is anybody trying it?

[dennisw]

You know what “carbon sequestration” is? And how the eco-nuts love it?

They Valcent add this to their algae proposals to generate more interest. Of course it can be done in a laboratory and it probably accelerates algae growth. But this sounds impractical on an industrial scale.

[patton]

Yes.

[count-your-change]

On the video I saw at their web page he actually distinguish but since he had already cited ponds I'll assume the speaker was talking about the Valcent system.
No matter, even one tenth would be 12,000 square miles.
All of L.A. county is about 4000 square miles.
By no stretch of the imagination would even 1%, 1200 square miles, be covered with bags of algae and tubing. And remember this is a warm state only project.
Not a plan that will ever be more than a plan.

[dennisw]

Now why would I eat that ...er, stuff? see post right after yours.

Spirulina (algae in health food store) seems to be spray dried 

But I have eaten it and worked with that goop for 22 years. You have not

BTW Health food store algae seems to be grown in Hawaii which is an expensive place to do anything....

But now cheaper Spirulina from China is closing in

[ovrtaxt]

Cool, I hope it works. Is that the Simgae system you’re talking about?

http://www.biodieselnow.com/forums/p/22018/153041.aspx#153041

[patton]

OBTW, it is my sincere belief that this is where oil comes from - saltwater, heat, wast gasses, pressure, and algae, having a party underground.

Dinosaurs never had a thing to do with it.

Of course, some people think that I am nuts.

[dennisw]

http://www.seed.slb.com/qa2/FAQView.cfm?ID=867

Origin of natural oil and gas

What is the origin of natural oil and gas?

Most scientists agree that hydrocarbons (oil and gas) are biogenic - formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. This theory is supported by the fact that many underground oil deposits contain chemicals that are only known in plants that live on the Earths surface.

Organisms, mostly algae and tiny animals called plankton, died and sank to the bottom of the seas in which they lived. They were covered with mud and sand then, over millions of years, buried deep under other sediments. Temperature in the Earth’s crust increases with depth. This has warmed the plant and animal remains, causing them to produce oil and gas.

Oil forms at temperatures between about 50°C (120°F) and 175°C (350°F). At higher temperatures, gas is formed and any oil that has already been produced starts to turn into lighter oils and eventually into Methane gas, the lightest and simplest hydrocarbon. At temperatures above about 260°C (500°F), plant and animal remains turn completely to carbon and no more oil or gas are produced.

Methane gas can also be formed at low temperatures at shallow depths. This includes swamp gas, formed by plants decomposing in swamps.

Some gas comes from coal, which is made from deep layers of vegetation from ancient forests. This vegetation has been also buried and “cooked”.

[ovrtaxt]

I don’t buy the dinosaur thing either, I also don’t believe in peak oil. I think the Earth just makes it.

But I’m a conspiratorial fruitcake, so don’t listen to me.

[patton]

No, I have not.

But I don’t know of any living organism that, say, a 100-tonne roller press won’t dry out immediately. Go ride through one, see if you feel dehydrated.

(You eat algae from china? Man, you are far braver than I.)

[dennisw]

Here is how they grow algae (Spirulina) found in health food stores. They have 90 acres of ponds in Hawaii where they culture it

http://www.naturalnews.com/002031.html

 

[patton]

“Most scientists agree that hydrocarbons (oil and gas) are biogenic - formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. This theory is supported by the fact that many underground oil deposits contain chemicals that are only known in plants that live on the Earths surface.”

And yet we can produce them in a lab, in weeks.

Why assume it took “Hundreds of millions of years”?

[dennisw]

Hawaii not china and from company mentioned in my preceding post... with the photo of ponds

[count-your-change]

They’ll need it. and a lot more.

[dennisw]

You need to read the wiki entry on petroleum. Read and learn its origin

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

[count-your-change]

verrryyy interesting!

[patton]

The entire Dead Sea is curruntly available for use, and it is about 900m beneath the med.

What are the envirowhackos going to say, you killed it?

Hellllo....it is deaaad...

[patton]

Why, thank you, for pointing me to the Barak Obama of authoritarian sources.

Don’t take insult, but...this is an area where a lot of folks, way more studied than me, disagree.

So I have my own theory, others have their own. Nobody knows the real answer, yet.

Fun to argue in the meantime, huh?

[dennisw]

Of course health food store has to be cultured cleanly enough to be edible.... But growing algae for biomass to make oil would be about the same. Done in ponds. Except for Valcent which will hang plastic bags in the desert. I can just see the desert sun ruining those bags in months or a year

[dennisw]

OK ..so you’re tripping