Posted on 08/12/2009 4:29:54 PM PDT by Reeses
There are two big problems associated with extracting liquid fuel from algae: getting the algae out of the water, and then getting the oil out of the algae. The pumps and centrifuges required to do this consume a lot of energy.
A California company, LiveFuels, is trying out a new, less energy-intensive approach: It is feeding the algae to small fish — and letting them do the job of harvesting.
After the fish fatten up, workers catch them in nets and process them for oil (as well as protein for animal feed). This is a bit like gathering whale oil, but the fish are closer in size to minnows. The resulting oil is a lot like the Omega 3 oil packaged into capsules and sold in supermarkets as a diet supplement. But it can be used to run cars and trucks, according to the company.
(Excerpt) Read more at greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com ...
We’ll prevent the next ice age and other unwanted climate changes with cloud control. The human influence on clouds is already much more profound and visible than our influence on CO2 levels but the envi-mentalists hate to bring up that subject. More clouds means more freshwater, more wind to churn up ocean nutrients, more mostly good things. 100 years from now when we’re using the open ocean to grow algae for fuel they’ll be laughing at the expensive efforts we tried to reduce plant food. Hopefully the global warming scam will be used frequently as a club against the Luddites.
Most knowledgeable people say that the coal supply would last the USA for another 200 years. Generating more oil by many times over the amount in all the Saudi reserves.
Yep. Oil only needs to be around $45/bbl to break even on coal gassification.
North America is the Saudi Arabia of coal. The problem is how to use coal without massive emissions, bringing up the world’s standard of living. We can use coal for now, but eventually we’ll need closed loop technologies such as saltwater algae fuel. We could completely replace the Middle East petroleum industry using 1% of the ocean surface, far from land in the ocean dead zones.
Additional hot stock tip: Invest in buggy whips!
Ever heard of Occams Razor?
Why not we just use coal and nuclear power like China?
In a few more decades maybe we will have fusion power.
China doesn't care about pollution and life is cheap there. Where are we going to get non-idiot nuclear plant workers from, the public school system? From the same pool of people where half voted for Obama? Many private investors have lost their shirts funding nuclear plants, so there are no investors without special new laws to insure their profits, while others take the risk, sort of like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. Fusion produces radioactive waste too, just less of it. Volume isn't the problem. Where do you put the stuff?
You reprocess spent fuel, like France does. Too bad the US law, passed by the loony toon Democrats forbid us from doing that. The rest, low level waste is stored in Yucca mountain, Oh yeah, forgot, the Democrats shut down that.
You quickly get the idea that it’s not energy technology that is the problem, It’s the Democrat party that is the problem. Those stupid idiotic leftards who hate America.
That's a political issue, not a physical problem.
They've been with us from the beginning. Cain was the very first leftard, killed his brother Able in envy. We've never figured out any way to get rid of them. They spontaneously re-form from the Universe's disorder. They are the dark half of the human condition.
Scientists don’t even understand how clouds form. Any kind of control is a long, long ways down the road.
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