Bio-diesel Made from Sewage

tito writes "A New Zealand company has successfully turned sewage into modern-day gold. New Zealand Herald is reporting that a Marlborough-based Aquaflow Bionomic yesterday announced it had produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds. It is believed to be the world's first commercial production of bio-diesel from 'wild' algae outside the laboratory - and the company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million litres of the fuel each year from Blenheim by April."

Comments

You've got to be shitting me.

[casings]

Finally we are going to be able to use our waste to ease some form of our lives.

I can already think of a slogon- "Waste makes haste"

Hmmmmmmmmmn,

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

As well as creating diesel from waste products, the process cleans water:

Creating fuel from the algae removes the problem while producing useful clean water, said Mr Leay. The clean water can then be used for stock food, irrigation and, if treated properly, for human consumption.

In spite of this, I'm sure a million slashdotters are going to bleat about this not solving the fuel crisis, giving us their back of napkin calculations that show you'll need to cover the entire surface of the united states with algae ponds to replace fossil fuels, etc.

Remember folks - there is not going to be a single replacement for fossil fuels, but many (and lets not forget the other half of the equation - reducing our energy consumption).

Hooray!

[thelonestranger]

My car already runs LIKE shit, now it can run ON shit as well.

Re:E85 costs more than regular gas!

[morie]

Another reason is that gasprices in the US are incredibly low from a european point of view, mostly due to taxes. Biofuel would be less likely te be as heavily taxed over here, making it cheaper at the gas station.

Re:1 million litres?

[awilden]

I think you mean switch to sugar cane since it's 8x more efficient than corn. Corn is what we already have, and sugar is what Brazil is using right now.

Re:Biodiesel Yield Per Land Area

[Xichekolas]

According to the UNH study and Wikipedia, the yield of algae farms is about 5000 to 20,000 gallons per acre of pond per year. This number varies mostly due to the pond conditions, strain of algae used, and oil collection method employed.

However, it is worthwhile to note that even the low end (5000 gallons per acre per year) is over 100 times better than soybeans (50 gallons per acre per year) or rapeseed (about 120 gallons per acre per year)... which are the two dominant crops providing biodiesel in America and Europe today.

To supply the entire US fuel needs would require as little as 0.3% of US land area to be covered by algae ponds. This translates to about 28,000 square kilometers, or about 11,000 square miles. To put this in perspective, that is about 1/8th the size of Kansas... and well less than the area devoted to Soybeans currently.

Re:Biodiesel Yield Per Land Area

[jackbird]

Well, filling a 15 gallon tank on two cars weekly for a year = 1560 gallons. So at 5000 gallons per acre per year, if all the open space of a large half-acre suburban lot were devoted to your personal sewage farm, you could just squeak by. Plus you'd save on home security bills, what with the giant moat of fecal slime surrounding your house. And you'd reduce tension with the neighbors, because you'd welcome your neighbor's dog crapping in your yard.