Algae That Cleans Emissions and Produces Fuel

**$tarDu$t** writes "Isaac Berzin, a rocket scientist at MIT has come up with an idea for using algae to clean up power-plant exhaust. His research began 3 years ago in an experiment for growing algae on the International Space Station. His idea consists of building algae farms near power plants to provide a means to reduce CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions. Emissions are filtered through the algae. Then the CO2 saturated algae is harvested and squeezed to produce a combustible vegetable oil (biodiesel) and a dried green substance that can be further processed into ethanol."

Better Strains and Algae Zeppelins?

[eldavojohn (898314)]

I don't have a biology degree but it seems to me that there might be faster ways of creating strains more efficient at harvesting/reducing CO2. I have seen lectures given where Alzheimer's susceptible genes were spliced into the genes of mice neurons using a strain of the herpes virus that had previously infected neurons of Alzheimer's patients [nih.gov].

Does anyone know if there are techniques like this to use to directly alter the genes of other organisms (like algae) using perhaps similar tricks?

Furthermore, what if this could be used for gases other than nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide?

Is there maybe a possibility of coating hot air balloons or zeppelins with this algae and letting them float about in the atmosphere until they become so heavy with algae they descend? I know it's kind of farfetched to propose that but stranger things that once were science fiction have become useful. The article seems to make it sound like just having the algae exposed to the air near a plant.

Nitrous?

[drewzhrodague (606182)]

I will personally take care of any spare nitrous oxide gas you happen to have. Please contact me via the email address attached to this account.

Re:Better Strains and Algae Zeppelins?

[Politburo (640618)]

I don't have a biology degree but it seems to me that there might be faster ways of creating strains more efficient at harvesting/reducing CO2.

Well gee, please do enlighten the biologists then.

The article seems to make it sound like just having the algae exposed to the air near a plant.

Did you miss this part in the summary in your rush for FP? "Emissions are filtered through the algae."

Re:Better Strains and Algae Zeppelins?

[PaintyThePirate (682047)]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I remember reading that to produce a useful amount of algae, the air needs to be at least 13% CO2. Coal plant emissions reach that level. So it would be possible to run the nation's diesel fleet off 15,000 square miles of desert if that desert contained a few dozen coal power plants and a system of pipes to carry exhaust to the algae ponds.

Re:Better Strains and Algae Zeppelins?

[arivanov (12034)]

Nope you are not wrong. Algae are an extreme pain in the arse to grow. They require loads of sun, loads of CO2 and the moment their concentration reaches a usefull level the broth tends to start dieing out, bacteria take over and contaminate the broth. So on. Of course, growing them for fuel is different from growing them for biotech where you need them "pure", but still. The idea of using algae is wildly optimistic.

Re:Better Strains and Algae Zeppelins?

[arivanov (12034)]

You are kind'a correct. True, algae grows everywhere. The problem is that it is not growing in a concentration for anything usefull. If you dip your fish in an algae broth that is as concentrated as necessary for it to be of any use for extracting food supplements they will die in 5 minutes or less because their gills will be completely clogged up. I assume that biofuel is the same (I may be wrong). And by the way - I used to study this (granted this was 20 years ago) and I used to have 8+ fish tanks around the apartment. So I know both sides of the story first hand.

Obligatory 'Soylent Green' reference

[trailerparkcassanova (469342)]

Isaac Berzin's algae IS people!!!!

OILIX

[HunterZ (20035)]

Nice, they've invented OILIX from Metal Gear 2 (MSX, not PS2)!

Algae

[mysqlrocks (783488)]

Can't algae itself get out of control and cause environmental problems?
http://www.google.com/search?q=algae+blooms [google.com]

Re:Algae

[fireduck (197000)]

Yes, under the proper conditions. Stack emissions are primarily CO2, NOx and various sulfur compounds. What primarily keeps algae levels in check in the environment are various micronutrients (phosphorous, nitrogen, iron). Given that smokestack emissions should be fairly defined composition, it should be straight forward to supply the exact amounts of additional nutrients to stimulate growth without overpopulation problems. Besides, this is an engineered process, not simply dumping emissions into a rive

Cheap Solar Power?

[by Anonymous Coward]

1. Fuel -> Power Plant -> Emissions
2. Emissions -> Algea -> Fuel
3. Profit!

UNH Biodeisel?

[ydnar (946)]

This sounds very similar to a similar process documented by the UNH Biodeisel Group [unh.edu].

Re:UNH Biodeisel?

[PaintyThePirate (682047)]

The UNH study is based on a ~20 year U.S. DoE study on algae biodiesel [energy.gov]. Anyway, while it is true that there is enough land in the United States to grow enough algae to replace all gasoline and diesel fuel use, it's not the ideal solution. The problem is that the algae requires something around 13% CO2 gas to grow in any useful amount. The level of CO2 naturally occuring in the atmosphere is about 0.035%. The only economical source to generate that much CO2 is burning Coal. So, the entire process still yields tremendoes amounts of CO2, contributing to global warming. Certainly, it is better to harness CO2 from existing Coal power plants for biodiesel instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, but it is not a permanent solution.

New advertising campaign

[eclectro (227083)]

Now -- With the cleaning power of Slime!!!

covered on PBS

[LEPP (166342)]

They had a Scientific American segment on this. Here [pbs.org] is the segment transcript. It was quite interesting.

LEPP

How does this really help?

[Bob_Villa (926342)]

From reading the article, the algae suck up the CO2 and the Nitrogen Oxides from the power plant emissions. That's obviously a good thing. The algae are then used to create methanol and biodiesel. What happens when you burn the methanol and biodiesel? Doesn't that just release the stored CO2 and Nitrogen Oxides back into the atmosphere, or am I missing something here?

Also, if these algae are so great, why don't we fill up thousands of acres with them, not just 15,000, and suck the CO2 and Nitrogen Oxides out of the atmosphere, reducing greenhouse gasses. Maybe the algae could then be dumped into the deep ocean, creating a carbon sink.

Does it take less pollution to create methanol and biodiesel this way, versus drilling them from the earth?
 

Re:How does this really help?

[Politburo (640618)]

What happens when you burn the methanol and biodiesel? Doesn't that just release the stored CO2 and Nitrogen Oxides back into the atmosphere, or am I missing something here?

Yes, you are. See in the current situation, both powerplant CO2 and vehicle CO2 (and NOx) are being emitted from different energy sources. For the sake of argument, let's assume equal amounts of emissions are emitted from the powerplant and the vehicles.

So you put in the algae and you get .4x CO2 out the powerplant stack, and let's as

Re:How does this really help?

[slcdb (317433)]

am I missing something here?

Yes. The theory is that you'd get twice the amount of use from the same amount of CO2 emissions -- once to generate electricity, and again to drive some cars (or something else). End result is total CO2 emissions are reduced because driving the cars only emitted the CO2 that the electicity generation plant would have already emitted otherwise.

Re:How does this really help?

[j1m+5n0w (749199)]

What happens when you burn the methanol and biodiesel? Doesn't that just release the stored CO2 and Nitrogen Oxides back into the atmosphere, or am I missing something here?

Yes, it ends up in the atmosphere in the end, but you get to use it twice. If you're going to polute, you might as well pollute in a way that maximises the energy generated per quantity of carbon dioxide produced. Also, this could partially solve a political problem of reliance on foreign fuel.

Also, if these algae are so great, why don't we fill up thousands of acres with them, not just 15,000, and suck the CO2 and Nitrogen Oxides out of the atmosphere, reducing greenhouse gasses. Maybe the algae could then be dumped into the deep ocean, creating a carbon sink.

I assume that the algae grows better in an environment with a high concentration of carbon dioxide, such as power plant exhaust. The gains from pumping regular air through an algae filter would be less dramatic (and you could probably acheive a similar result by, say, planting a tree).

sprayers vs bubblers

[G4from128k (686170)]

I'd bet that this will work more effectively if the algae/water mixture is sprayed into the power plant exhaust rather than bubbling exhaust gas. Spraying will maximize the surface area exposed to the exhaust and reduce the system's energy use. It will take much less energy to compress a small volume of algae-liquid and make small drops than it does to compress a massive volume of gas to make small bubbles.

I can even imagine a multistage sprayer. A hot-stage sprayer injects matured algae-mix into the hot exhaust gases to both cool the exhaust stream and create a desiccated algae powder (for fuel production). A cool-stage sprayer injects living alga mix into the cooled water-saturated exhaust stream. Even with the two stage process I'd bet that the "cool" stage will still run at a relatively high temperature. Perhaps the engineers will need to adapt a thermophilic algae (such as live in hot-springs) to make the system feasible.

Real world implementation

[ikornalot (734157)]

This has been under discussion here [biodieselnow.com] since 2004.

More CO2 scrubbing/sequestering

[greg_barton (5551)]

Check out this dangerous idea [edge.org]

Re:Alright, another idea that will go nowhere!

[idsofmarch (646389)]

Yeah. Comes nothing good ever comes from research, we should just stop trying.

Re:Alright, another idea that will go nowhere!

[Red Flayer (890720)]

"I wish I had a nickel for every "So and so scientist at so-and-so university has come up with such-and-such alternative to gasoline" story I've seen over the last 30 years."

Wish I had a penny for every knee-jerk post made by someone who didn't even bother reading TFS, let alon TFA.

This isn't about alternative energy supply (mostly). This is about waste mediation, particularly CO2. The generation of usable fuels by the algae is just a nice little benefit, kind of like using an afterburner to generate extra power while reducing particulate emissions.

Re:Alright, another idea that will go nowhere!

[RingDev (879105)]

Actually, WI is upping their ethanol blend again, we have a 200mil gal/year soy plant going in just out side of madison, and the new Milwaukee power plant could wind up being one of the most advanced clean coal burning plants in the US.

The big problem is not solutions, but cost. $3/gallon is the magic point for gas. Unless vehicles shoot way above 30mpg and gas prices don't increase past $3/gal alternative fuels will be cheaper. And the joy of capitalism is that the most financial sound path is the best funded. So yeah, hydrogen fuel cells have been possible for decades. But why would anyone invest in hydrogen when it costs the equivilant of $3/gal of gas today when gas has always been cheaper? If hydrogen costs 15 cents per mile, and gas costs 10 cents per mile, gas is going to get the investment. But when gas costs 13 cents a mile, and is only going to rise, people start looking into hydrogen.

That's where we're at now, gas is still cheaper, but just barily. As the hydrogen and alt fuel networks expand, and the cost of gas increases, alt fuels will become more and more popular.

-Rick