There was a "green" alternative-energy story last fall:
"Global Green To Fund Demonstration Algae Bioreactor Plant"
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/10/global_green_to.html
Global Green Solutions has agreed to fund a pilot plant demo-ing the
technology developed by Valcent Products for an algae system that
converts CO2 to biofuel oil. There are 5-6 outfits with similar algae
biofuel technology in the USA, including one known as MIT. There could
be many more overseas.
There are also ramifications for going much further than this story
indicates. MUCH further - if you read between the lines.
If the system lived up to best-case expectations, then in theory any
present day coal-fired plant with enough acreage for ponds could
actually harvest enough algae to need very little or NO coal and become
very close to carbon neutral and self-sufficient !
This is a very optimistic reading of present results, granted, but it
does explain rationale for why the huge influx of VC funding is going
into something brand new and into buying up coal utilities at extremely
high premiums. Note also that most of these utilities being bought have
large adjoining acreage.
This GGS system yields a constant supply of algae during day time, which
is harvested and processed to remove the oil, which will sell for FAR
more than the coal which was burned to make it... or ... leaving a
residue of some 50% by weight, which can also be sold for a variety of
commercial products (animal feed) OR converted by enzymes into butanol
... OR burned in place of much of the coal!
The system can be conceived in theory as a closed-loop producing all the
fuel it needs - or at least producing products more valuable than the
fuel which is burned. It is win-win, and the economics are staggering.
Valcent has extrapolated data from its test bed facility to conclude
that production yields of up to 150,000 gallons (3,570 barrels) of
bio-oil per acre per year are possible at a cost of about $20 per
barrel. By comparison, soybeans yield about 68 gallons per acre and palm
about 635 gallons per acre. This would seem like so much hyperbole, yet
other studies from competitors are similar. This is not even the highest
claim which can be found (in gallons per acre).
Yes - let's be clear that it is a big mistake to extrapolate from a
best-case result to an average result over an extended period. But
understand that this plant is based on only solar algae during daytime,
so that 1/3 of the breeding time is underutilized. If the the technology
emerges such that the strains of algae are hybridized to be robust using
only heat and CO2, such as those under development which have been using
single cell organisms hybridized from deep ocean vents - then it may be
possible to increase the average yield up to nearer to the best case.
If the system were operated on the scale of an average farm - with 1000
acres of these algae ponds, then the value of the oil produced at
150,000 gallons per acre (best case) is at least $300,000,000 and if the
fuel for the power plant which supplies the CO2 comes from the non-oil
algae residue, with some added coal perhaps, then the electrical power
would be essentially free of incremental cost, and the whole system much
closer to carbon neutral.
OK. No one is suffering under the delusion that this can happens soon,
but the fact that it has happened at all on a smaller scale - and in the
best case scenario- in a real pilot plant- this is indicative of why so
much venture capital is headed into this technology.
Jones
