Researchers Pooh-Pooh Algae-Based Biofuel

Julie188 writes "Researchers from the University of Virginia have found that current algae biofuel production methods consume more energy, have higher greenhouse gas emissions and use more water than other biofuel sources, such as switchgrass, canola and corn. The researchers suggest these problems can be overcome by situating algae production ponds behind wastewater treatment facilities to capture phosphorous and nitrogen — essential algae nutrients that otherwise need to come from petroleum."

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Reserachers?

[azav]

Timothy, please spell check your title.

Somebody failed high school chemistry.

[John Hasler]

> ...phosphorous and nitrogen -- essential algae nutrients that otherwise need
> to come from petroleum.

Phosphorus and nitrogen from petroleum. Uh huh. Right.

Re:Somebody failed high school chemistry.

[Red Flayer]

OK, so whoever wrote that wasn't thinking straight. But it is true that fertilizer (both phosphates and nitrogen) require a lot of fossil fuel to produce -- usually natural gas.

Phosphate fertilizer (ortho- or poly-phosphates) is synthesized in an energy-intensive process. Organic phosphates, like those from manure (or waste treatment plant effluent), help solve this problem.

For nitrate fertilizer, it's even more extreme. Please read about the Haber Process.

Yes, John, most fertilizer does come from fossil fuels.

So, yes, whoever wrote that made a mistake. However, it's no lie to say that fertilizer production uses a huge amount of fossil fuel.

One other reason, Algae is more valuable!

[nweaver]

Diesel, wholesale, is a couple bucks a gallon. Which means it is far FAR less than a dollar a pound.

A good algae is worth far MORE than that per pound as animal feed, dietary suppliments, etc. So why turn something that you can sell for $2/lb into something you can only sell for less than $.5/lb?

That's interesting

[Useful Wheat]

The company that I worked for commissioned a few studies on algae based biofuels. It turns out that the most efficient way of handling the material was to collect the algae in cakes and burn it in a reactor to make synthesis gas. Synthesis gas is a mixture of CO and Hydrogen. If you add steam, you could then perform a shift reaction to get methane or methanol. The main value of the process was not in producing fuel, or generating electricity. The main thing you could use it for was as a chemical feedstock. Methanol is a good starting point for many plastics.

(final comment, my spell checker wants to change biofuels to befouled)

Salt Water Biofuel

[EEPROMS]

I notice a few people commenting on using fresh water. Well according to CSIRO (Australia) you can happily use salt water There is even a prototype plant that has been commissioned to look at making this more cost effective.

Re:Energy is conserved by law of physics

[MrNiceguy_KS]

I think you've over-estimated the chance in being Barack Obama by quite a bit. Your estimate for being hurt by a nuclear power plant seems right on, though.

Re:Energy is conserved by law of physics

[natehoy]

I think you mean dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO for short).

hydrogen dioxide is also known as "hydrogen peroxide", which is a relatively harmless bleaching agent, and it contains more oxygen than DHMO, so it's got to be healthy.