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Published on Oct 31, 2012 Contact Kate McAlpine, (734) 763-4386, [email protected] or Nicole Casal Moore, (734) 647-7087, [email protected]
ANN ARBOR—It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a multimillion-year process to produce crude oil. Michigan Engineering researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and transform an unprecedented 65 percent of the green slime into biocrude.
"We're trying to mimic the process in nature that forms crude oil with marine organisms," said Phil Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan.
The findings will be presented Nov. 1 at the 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.
Savage's ocean-going organism of choice is the green marine micro-alga of the genus Nannochloropsis.
To make their one-minute biocrude, Savage and Julia Faeth, a doctoral student in Savage's lab, filled a steel pipe connector with 1.5 milliliters of wet algae, capped it and plunged it into 1,100-degree Fahrenheit sand. The small volume ensured that the algae was heated through, but with only a minute to warm up, the algae's temperature should have just grazed the 550-degree mark before the team pulled the reactor back out.
Previously, Savage and his team heated the algae for times ranging from 10 to 90 minutes. They saw their best results, with about half of the algae converted to biocrude, after treating it for 10 to 40 minutes at 570 degrees.
On Thursday, the department announced "up to $10 million to help unlock the potential of biofuels made from algae." The money will go to research projects aimed at making algae cultivation systems more productive (getting more of it per acre); and developing energy-efficient and low-cost algae harvesting and processing technologies. The Energy Department hopes the new technologies will speed commercialization of domestically-produced, cost-competitive biofuels from algae. Researchers from industry, academia, and national laboratories are encouraged to apply for the federal funding.
In a Feb. 23, 2012 speech at the University of Miami in Florida, President Obama vowed that "With or without this Congress, I will continue to do whatever I can to develop every source of American energy so our future isnt controlled by events on the other side of the world." He mentioned natural gas development -- and algae: "Were making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel thats actually made from a plant-like substance -- algae. Youve got a bunch of algae out here, right? (Laughter.) If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, well be doing all right. "
Obama's comment drew snorts from conservatives. "This is the kind of stuff that's Cloud Cuckoo Land," said Newt Gingrich. Rush Limbaugh joked that Obama needed to hire a pond-scum czar to oversee his algae-into-energy vision.
And Charles Krauthammer wondered, "Why are we drilling for oil?" when algae is so plentiful: "I think he's on to something here that is truly revolutionary," Krauthammer joked. "Why would you build a pipeline, the Keystone pipeline with real oil from Canada to put in real refineries and put in real existing cars when you can do algae? I think he is on to something. And I think this shows the vision, the hope and change he promised in 2008."
Energy Dept. Spending $10M to ?Unlock? Potential of Algae | CNS News
Do we actually fund this junk science with taxpayer dollars?
Do we actually fund this junk science with taxpayer dollars?
How the hell is that junk science?
Do we actually fund this junk science with taxpayer dollars?
How the hell is that junk science?
In its purest form, the "science" may not be junk.
But when the science chases the numbers then yes there is room for pause.
Hydrocarbons ARE biofuels. And they have no equal.
The fossil fuel we are burning took a billion years to create. You can't make fuel out of a pond plant and expect it to cost less than $100,000 per gal by the time the federal government finishes fooling with it.
The fossil fuel we are burning took a billion years to create. You can't make fuel out of a pond plant and expect it to cost less than $100,000 per gal by the time the federal government finishes fooling with it.
So Applied Resource Associates and Chevron (among others) are now a branch of the US government?
This is already being done. These guys are researching potentially cheaper ways of producing the stuff. A good idea if ever there was one. But research takes cash.
The fossil fuel we are burning took a billion years to create. You can't make fuel out of a pond plant and expect it to cost less than $100,000 per gal by the time the federal government finishes fooling with it.
So Applied Resource Associates and Chevron (among others) are now a branch of the US government?
This is already being done. These guys are researching potentially cheaper ways of producing the stuff. A good idea if ever there was one. But research takes cash.
The fossil fuel we are burning took a billion years to create. You can't make fuel out of a pond plant and expect it to cost less than $100,000 per gal by the time the federal government finishes fooling with it.
So Applied Resource Associates and Chevron (among others) are now a branch of the US government?
This is already being done. These guys are researching potentially cheaper ways of producing the stuff. A good idea if ever there was one. But research takes cash.
If they are funded by the government you can bet your ass(ets) that they will be a branch of the government as long as the funding lasts and maybe longer.
