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Biochemist Creates CO2-Eating Light That Runs On Algae
An anonymous reader writes "Biochemist Pierre Calleja has a solution to reducing carbon emissions that doesn't require us to cut back on our use of carbon-producing devices. Calleja has developed a lighting system that requires no electricity for power. Instead it draws CO2 from the atmosphere and uses it to produce light as well as oxygen as a byproduct. The key ingredient to this eco-friendly light? Algae. Certain types of algae can feed off of organic carbon as well as sunlight, and in the process produce carbohydrate energy for themselves as well as oxygen as a waste product. Cajella's lamps consist of algae-filled water along with a light and battery system. During the day the algae produce energy from sunlight that is then stored in the batteries. Then at night the energy is used to power the light. However, as the algae can also produce energy from carbon, sunlight isn't required for the process to work. That means such lights can be placed where there is no natural light and the air will effectively be cleaned on a daily basis."
In mines.
Another, is in your mom's basement.
I think I may have found this Algae growing in a car park in Spain.
Where can I download it? Er, I mean, get them to send me a sample. Assuming it's any different from photobioluminecent Algae that's present in the ocean anyway. Though collecting enough of this for me has been difficult.
I hope they can take a selfless attitude rather than hanging into the limit commercial applications. The little guy can play a role here so I hope they are generous.
-j
A blog I run for the wealth
Well done /. editors... I couldn't even finish reading the summary without finding a mistake; "Calleja" in the first line of the summary is written correctly but "Cajella" in the fourth is not.
Light emitting underwear.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
"that is then stored in the batteries."
Does this harm the algae? If not, why aren't they forcing the use of this? This is an amazing invention unless it's exaggerated.
Normally:
CO2 + Light = Algae
Now:
CO2 + Algae = Light
Brilliant!
Algae can produce energy via photosynthesis. Sure.
Claiming (as is heavily implied) the can extract energy somehow from CO2 sans sunlight is about as sound as claims you can run your car on hydrogen "extracted" from water.
Carbon isn't inherently a source of energy. Energy can be stored in carbon compounds by having carbon in certain oxidation states. Then in a redox reaction it gets oxidized to CO2. At that point, no more energy to extract. You need energy in at that point. Carbon isn't magic.
Thermodynamics. It's not just a good idea. It's the law.
The video in the article describes something completely different from the text article.
The thing, as described in the video, is completely useless for carbon sequestration purposes until electricity production is almost totally carbon-neutral (which won't be for many years).
The thing, as described in the text, violates the first law of thermodynamics.
At least one of them is grotesquely wrong, and possibly both. Either way, this lamp is utterly useless in an "underground parking garage," which is the proposed use as discussed in the video.
Am I the only one who was very much distracted seeing the constant screen transitions in the video? I could hardly focus on what was being said because I was trying to figure out what the finger was doing. -grumbles-
I wonder if this would be a good technology to apply in spacecraft for electricity/light generation seeing as how it could double as a CO2 scrubber, eliminating the need for (as many?) filters.
-Cheez
With an atmosphere consisting of over 95% carbon dioxide, wouldn't a few million of these "pods" help the Terra-forming efforts of mars' atmosphere? Sure, it'd take a few MILLION years, but think of the possibilities here!
On the note of the article, it sounds too good to be true really. I don't buy into the idea until a more scientific analysis has been done.
The Dune Lights have arrived!
Everything about this sounds really nice, but they don't seem to mention the costs involved.
Apparently Geek.com has it's own problems with editors & science....
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Isn't CO2 already at it's lowest energy level? How is it this process can be both exothermic and also release higher energy byproducts than its inputs? This algae seems to beg for a solar powered perpetual motion machine that burns the algae's biomass carbon to produce CO2...
Sounds like snake oil to me:
First there's absolutely no mention of the mechanisms that provide energy - photosynthesis is implied and requires light, as the summary says. Therefore, the whole system requires light.
Then, nobody cares to explain how exactly energy is stored in "batteries", much less how the light is powered. An electrical light is implied, so the storage is explained, but how is electricity produced? And why do they seemingly connect the system to a power supply?
Does anyone have an explanation for any of this, or is this just as real as cold fusion?
OK, the algae could use light and CO2 to synthesize reduced carbon compounds, which could then be oxidized in the dark to generate light. Basically, this is just a biological version of a solar lighting system. Sounds finicky to maintain, but maybe energy storage in algae could outperform conventional batteries. But the article implies that the lamp has a net consumption of CO2. That implies a net production of other organic compounds, because carbon atoms can't just vanish. So what happens to this carbon "waste." There article says this is just another kind of fuel. This is plausible, but how do you get the energy out of that fuel? The normal way to get energy out of reduced carbon compounds is to burn or otherwise oxidize them--in which case you end up with CO2 again (if you do it fully). So once again, it is hard to see how this process can lead to appreciable net carbon sequestration.
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Could be the basis for the infinite energy chips prophesized by someone I know.
You have to love those awfully photoshopped pictures in the video!
He says in the video that they absorb a ton a CO2 a year. The US releases 5.5 billion tons a year so just this country would need 5.5 billion of these lamps to absorb it all. He also claims he's the only one that ever thought of using algae. There are a lot of people working in algae it's just you have to work on a large scale for it to have any affect.
Yeah And I made a perpetual motion machine!
I think this is just bad journalism. I suppose the lamp uses electricity to give light to the algae, which use this to store CO2 in carbohydrates. Not a very brilliant idea. If it was that brilliant we'd be reading about it from Nature or Science and not geek.com
A green solution
All algae consumes C02. So do all tree leafs. Is photosynthesis a new discovery all of a sudden?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/april/electric-current-plants-041310.html
...CO2? Don't these designers even think?
Wouldn't matter even if it worked. the government will never allow any solution other than carbon taxes.
Isn't it thermodynamically impossible to do this without USING energy?
Plants take in CO2 and make oxygen all the time. But they use energy in the form of sunlight to do it. So if the plant can produce power in the dark without any light at all... How?
Magic plant? Put a plant in a dark place with all the CO2 it wants... see how happy it is... it will die. Of course, then fungus and mold will eat it in the dark but that's a different family of life.
This whole report sounds like pseudo-science. Not unlike those perpetual energy machines that cranks keep claiming to have invented in their garages with nothing more then some old soda cans and a dream.
Here's another question, you know that guy that claimed to have cracked Fusion and wants to sell municipal grade fusion reactors? Well... where is he now? Claiming sudden technical difficulties owing to the fact that like all these other guys he made it up.
I don't know if it's the inventor's fault in this case or just a stupid press. But this story doesn't add up.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
What's to stop them from runaway population growth in the atmosphere. Night and day, knoshing on CO2 and making light all over the globe? In fact, why didn't they do exactly that eons ago? Maybe because what's describe is impossible.
Infinite energy chips: betcha CAN eat just one.
Stop it, god damn it.
GW is a problem.
Global cooling that induces an ice age is murderous on a multibillion person scale.
STOP IT. This means you, dear critical-thinking reader.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Does this make the Australian Carbon Tax redundant?
You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
I'm pretty sure that whoever wrote the headline "Biochemist Creates CO2-Eating Light That Runs On Algae" has never learned anything beyond high-school physics...
I honestly thought that this light was in some spectral or intensity regime, where a mechanism (which here is falsely advertised as eating) was discovered where light could chemically dissociate CO2 into more useful compounds, and that algae were the catalyst for this mechanism. A bit (lot) disappointing to read that it was a grotesquely overblown version of "we keep this organism alive with a waste product and it gives us something we want in return."
The headline is about as misleading as something like "Scientist discovers CO2-eating oxygen that runs on Tree!" Except that Oxygen has absolutely nothing to do with the verb placed before it, and is actually a byproduct of the reaction.
Because it does not involve the rape of the free world's economies, which is the real objective of the global warming alarmists. This would be "geoengineering" which has been consistently rejected by these environmental extremists/fraudsters. Sooo... its not really worth reading, is it, since its Dead on Arrival.
even plants
that basically means the entire superkingdom eukaryota
your hypothesis could use some work
Hidden in the video is the lamp cord running to the wall.
Facts take all of the premium out of arm waving - T. Reynolds
they look like pretty terrible street lamps....could we just place them out of sight to suck up carbon dioxide instead?
How bright is the light? That's always a problem...
Batteries are also environmentally un-friendly.
So if I understand this process, the algae take carbon from the air and make it into carbohydrates which are then used to make more algae.
So the carbon is sitting there waiting for the algae to die, at which point what happens to it? This seems to me to be a great way to temporarily removes carbon from the air, where it will return in a few days during decomposition.
Am I missing something?
What's the density of algae needed for lighting purposes? What's the source of algae ? And, of Algae can do it, why not some other plants too ? What's the role of the normal electric bulb or battery in the set up ? Is this algae- light another manifestation of electricity ? If so, what's the strength of the magnetic field associated with it ? Can some one give the science for this phenomena ?
Would the entrenched business in peddling electricity at high costs allow this invention to be commercialized ? It's more likely that the, the vested interests nip it off in the bud. But if it survives , its for the good of the 99%.