Attractive Algae

Being a equipment nerd with a strong interest in how we make things, biofuels are of particular interest to me. The thought of growing our energy - thus using and then recapturing the CO2 in each growing cycle is attractive for many reasons.

However, ethanol's recent boom/bust cycle is a lesson in the limits of the first and easiest solution out of the box. It's often not the best solution.

You can argue the numbers, you can juggle the books to say that ethanol from grain is viable, but the recent rapid rise of grain prices makes it abundantly clear that the corn to ethanol scheme will not pan out.

The next idea is to distill fuel in the form of oil from an unlikely source: algae. Given the right supply of fuel (nutrients) and air (CO2 for plant), algae can double in mass daily. It is 50% lipids (oil) and could be processed easily into biodiesel with current techniques.

What is more beautiful is that the algae will need to consume another resource that is currently thought of as a waste - namely sewage. Whether from municipal or livestock sources, what to do with our sewage is a growing problem in the world. If algae works at all like duckweed (a plant that has been studied extensively) it may be able not only to purify water of its nitrogen content, but possibly other minerals. If the algae residue, after the oils are extracted, proves to be useful as a livestock feed - the cycle will be complete. It's unclear if the algae could consume a significant amount of CO2, but we could see a large algae plant bubbling power plant flue gasses into the water to feed the algae.

Watching the ethanol boom pass me by without being able to capitalize on the trend, I was speculating to my cousin about how great it would be to get in on the ground floor of the coming algae boom. I told him it would be great to develop a small system the size of a septic tank for individual home use. "Let's do it," was his immediate response. Someone is going to do it, I'm sure. I've got a pond full of duckweed, and the first step is playing with designing a skimmer to harvest the duckweed out of the pond. That's my homework project this summer. I'm not sure why I was convinced it wouldn't be me to develop the technology, but I'm willing to test the theory.