Since "green-is-in" these days, more so than ever before, it seems that every scam artist in the universe is trying to find his own green-niche in order to capitalize on the situation.
But I do not think this compressed air car of Guy Negre is necessarily one of them. Yet the numbers speak for themselves... or do they? Numbers and statistics can be the slippery next step down in Dante's spiral, below "lies and damn lies" but still... this situation begs for a more complete explanation- as does the following "green-is-in" enticement about algoil: "Matt's company is taking CO2 from local industry and pumping it into specially built algae ponds, which are harvested every three to five days. While one acre of soy can produce about a barrel of biodiesel in a year, the same land dedicated to this unique process produces between 1500-2000 barrels of B-100 a year, depending on how sunny it is. Talk about solar power!" http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1269/ OK here is the problem that keeps popping up wrt algae vis-a-vis normal crops: growing soy is about 2% efficient in converting solar photons into energy, yet this claim is for 2000 times more, which is an effective COP of about 40 - which is over and above 100% conversion of solar into energy. How can that be? In other less fantastic, but still astounding claims which we find for algoil - where heat is also added along with CO2, it has been asserted by the proponents (some reputable like MIT) that there are strains of bacteria which can effectively use IR photons, from low grade heat, to convert CO2 into lipids; and therefore do not require sunlight at all. That may be true up to a point. However, there is no extra heat being added, in the claim above... leading to the apprehension that it is one more scam-in-the-making? There are many observers like me, who have tried to jump aboard the algoil bandwagon before, only to find too much of the same type of inconsistent talk, lack of real data, and scam artists at work - such as with the typical Dennis Lee promotion. Yet with algoil, there does seem to be something potentially remarkable and efficient - at the basis of the situation, which is not found in any other kind of agriculture. Jones FWIW in the evolving-scam department - it is worth noting that Mike Brady (Perendev), who is labeled by some as a genius-inventor and by others as a high-level scam artist of Dennis Lee caliber, has now developed his own compressed air (actually liquid nitrogen) motor: http://www.perendev-power.com/nitrogen.htm Wonder when he and Dennis Lee will get together and jump into algoil ?
