Re: [Vo]:Sargassum for ethanol experimented in Taiwan
In reply to R C Macaulay's message of Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:22:41 -0500: Hi, [snip] Howdy Jones, The nation is absolutely overloaded with technology but getting the bits and pieces fitted together takes teamwork which is an absentee to the equation. The wine, vinegar and beer brewers alone have some adanced tech tricks they could add.. plus the petro refiners have a whole slice of the puzzle already solved.. Speaking of brew.. ever wonder when a glass jar of preserved home made corn explodes.. there may be more than fermentation involved. If one goes off.. the whole shelf follows in sequence... hmm.. strange. Richard ...not really. All made from the same batch, therefore all fermenting, just not all at quite the same rate. Nevertheless, all building pressure internally. When the first one goes it creates a shock wave that hits the nearest jar, distorting it so that it also explodes and triggers the next in sequence etc. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk The shrub is a plant.
[Vo]:Sargassum for ethanol experimented in Taiwan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel#Algal_strains mentions Sargassum, with a link to this recent article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/01/12/2003396760 Summary: Sargassum is a high growth species (10 times the output volume of gracilaria), convertible to ethanol. But they don't say if this applies to the floating variety 'Sargassum bacciferum' we are interested in for the Gyre farming scheme: Gulf weed (Bot.), a branching seaweed (Sargassum bacciferum , or sea grape), having numerous berrylike air vessels, -- found in the Gulf Stream, in the Sargasso Sea, and elsewhere. [1913 Webster] -- Michel
Re: [Vo]:Sargassum for ethanol experimented in Taiwan
--- Michel Jullian wrote: Summary: Sargassum is a high growth species (10 times the output volume of gracilaria), convertible to ethanol. Well - to be precise, any biofuel system should aim for butanol instead of ethanol... Butanol is highly preferable for several reasons already mentioned in past postings: better energy density, lack of corrosion and low water affinity, less vapor pressure, and easy substitution into either diesel or gasoline, and unlimited blending in any ratio, etc... That choice is a no-brainer. ... plus AFAIK biomass which is convertible into one alcohol can be converted to the other by changing the bacteria strain. PLUS - back in 2005, we broke the so-called fermentation barrier using electrical assist... which is a big jump in the hybridization of the fermentation process itself. The first electrically-assisted process was aimed at getting more hydrogen out of fermentation for fuel cells, but fuel cells are a bust. And hydrogen can't be easily stored. That new wrinkle in fermentation was able to produce four times the quantity of hydrogen over typical fermentation by eliminating one of the parasitic demands of the process. There is every reason to believe that that with genetic engineering, in consort with electrical assist, we can convert sargassum into butanol VERY efficiently, since it is closer to cellulose in chemical makeup than is ethanol. As I understand it, the fermentation barrier is about limiting the effect of acetic acid and other unwanted chemical pathways by providing a slight power boost to the bacteria in the form of a direct electric current at 0.25 volts or so. If you put in much higher voltage, the higher current kills the bacteria but a small boost can accelerate a desired pathway. At any rate, this and other rapidly evolving RD shows that new methods are out there, which can be tailored to needs, and are ready to provide increased renewable energy from biomass over what has been the traditional approach and expectation. Jones
Re: [Vo]:Sargassum for ethanol experimented in Taiwan
Howdy Jones, The nation is absolutely overloaded with technology but getting the bits and pieces fitted together takes teamwork which is an absentee to the equation. The wine, vinegar and beer brewers alone have some adanced tech tricks they could add.. plus the petro refiners have a whole slice of the puzzle already solved.. Speaking of brew.. ever wonder when a glass jar of preserved home made corn explodes.. there may be more than fermentation involved. If one goes off.. the whole shelf follows in sequence... hmm.. strange. Richard Jones wrote, At any rate, this and other rapidly evolving RD shows that new methods are out there, which can be tailored to needs, and are ready to provide increased renewable energy from biomass over what has been the traditional approach and expectation.
