March 04, 2008
One of the Brickmuppets crack team of science babes brings us this Jim Fraiser post on what may be a big step forward in biofuels.
It
seems that a company named Green Star Products has completed a low cost
algal farm that is, in theory, suitable for quick setup nearly anywhere
outside of polar/subpolar regions.
Oil from algae produces about 50 times the
yield of the best oilseed crops, and this sort of arrangement might not
displace food crops to the same extent as, say ethanol from corn, which
is always struck me as a dubious idea.
I'm more excited by thermal depolymerization as it doubles as waste disposal.
This
however is really interesting. Note that there are considerable hurdles
(read the whole post for Fraiser's thoughts on that) and I still think
that without lots of cheap nuclear power to provide the heat that
thermal depolymerization...and to a lesser extent algae refining...need
then the future of biofuels is marginal at best.
WITH nuclear
power, they could potentially produce high density, carbon neutral,
liquid fuel with little disadvantages over natural petroleum....a
win-win for everybody except anti-nuke hysterics and the most hardcore greens.
Note: this is a repost of a post originally made on March 15, 2007 as the original post is inexplicably not linkable.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
09:46 AM
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