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| Science & Technology |
| Grow your fuel the smart way |
| 2008-05-20 |
| No wonder the Arabs are in such a hurry to destroy Israel! First a major breakthrough in solar energy, and now a revolutionary discovery in producing synthetic fuels...using algae!: Israeli scientist Dr. Isaac Berzin discovered that "green slime" contains one of the keys to the alternative fuel the world is seeking. His company is the first ever to develop and produce biofuels from algae that are bred on gases emitted by power plants. It might sound like some sort of magic trick to put algae, CO2 and sunlight into a box and come out with fuel, but Berzin did it. "I feel a bit like Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb," he says. "He tried thousands of materials until he arrived at the filament. My intuition, too, told me that it was possible to do something that people were only dreaming of - to build a device from algae to produce energy at market-compatible costs. "It's logical, really, when you think about it," Berzin continues, "because all liquid fuels are compressed ancient organic matter, the outcome of photosynthesis. The liquid fuels that are pumped out of the earth are ancient plants. There are no miracles here. We just accelerated the process. A quarter of the weight of algae is vegetable oil from which biofuel can be produced, and the point was to control the biology. My goal was to adapt the algae to the local water and the local profile of the gases - to ensure they would be happy."... In a large conference hall at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Berzin declares that the world is on the threshold of a vast change. "An era has ended," he asserts without hesitation. "Until now we found a reserve of fuel and used it up. In comparison to the evolutionary process, we are at the transition from the stage of the collectors of food to the situation in which humanity began to engage in agriculture and grow food. That is what we are doing today: we are starting to grow our fuel. Our generation will go down in history as the 'fuel generation.' That generation is over. Man is moving from a situation in which he uses up the sources of energy to one in which he grows energy." ... This is by no means just theoretical: Berzin has registered 12 patents that enshrine his rights to the technology connecting an energy farm to a power plant. In 2005, in the heart of the Arizona desert, he chalked up another achievement when he set up the world's first trial project adjacent to a power plant of APS, Arizona's largest electrical utility company. The director of the advanced fuels program of APS, Raymond Hobbs, relates that his Ford has been cruising the streets of Phoenix on green fuel since 2006. "My mandate is to burn fuel and produce electricity, but we have a problem called CO2," he notes. "The good thing about Itzik's [Isaac's] technology is that we are recycling the toxin and creating a new industry. It's a win-win situation for everyone [xcept oil ticks, 2x4]. It's not every day that you make a hole in the smokestack of a power plant that is worth billions of dollars and start to grow algae. I did it because I believed in Itzik. The first time we met, he showed up at my office with three people and said that was his whole company. I say that the size of a company does not determine the size of the head. One person's idea can bring about tremendous change. I am certain that his technology will bring mankind lots of fuel, food and peace." Once oil ticks starve, peace may be possible. Even more interesting, the process doesn't interfere with the food supply or take up valuable land and is actually more efficient than synthesizing fuel out of plants used for food crops: "It turns out that the biofuels produced from corn or soy seeds - fuels that are considered the future substitute for pollutant fuel - cause environmental damage themselves. It is also not economically viable: to grow the soy beans you need leaves and roots, a whole system that supports the beans from which the oil is produced. No such system is required to grow algae. Their rate of growth is 10 to 100 times that of any other biological system. So if you have a unit of land, you can achieve orders of production that are many times higher. This is a process that does not compete for land and water resources - algae can grow in saltwater and in sewage." Dr. Berzin, who made TIME magazine's list of 100 most influential people this year, is also aware of the implications this could have for the War On Jihad: " After all, those terrorists are funded by fuel powers...As soon as one energy farm proves itself economically - and that will happen within a year and a half - we will be able to establish similar farms all over the world. If an energy revolution of this kind occurs in China, it will foment a strategic change in the division of the political forces on a global scale. A world in which China will not be dependent on Iran will be a different world. Some countries will lose part of their power. The message is one of energy freedom. If you have land, sun and CO2, you can grow your own energy. A revolution like this will make the world free." And just maybe, that's how G-d intended it. Or as Dr. Berzin puts it, when modestly downplaying his achievement "... it was mostly the finger of G-d. I am not a religious person, but I have a feeling of divine providence. G-d is not mentioned in the Book of Esther, but from the events you understand that He is behind the scenes, that He exists. In my story, too, what I dreamt of came to be, and I often had the feeling that someone behind the scenes was helping me." Just another major benefit to humanity provided by Israel...as opposed to what their Arab adversaries have contributed to the world. |
| Posted by:twobyfour |
| #18 Ash ejected into the stratosphere will cool temps. By how much depends on the amount of ash. So far not much into the stratosphere, but these kind of plinian eruptions can go on for months before their final eruptive event. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-05-20 19:56 |
| #17 regarding the volcano so far very little sulfur emitted (mostly ash); if this continues it will be a null factor climate-wise |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-05-20 18:15 |
| #16 Step right up, I got yur bio-fuel right here. Uses algae, clean, green and mean. It's cheep right now, get in on the bottom floor and make a million out of the looming lack of free energy. I also have your Carbon Offsets and a damn fine deal on Wind Power. Step right up, it's here, it's new and it's time for a change. |
| Posted by: George Smiley 2008-05-20 14:53 |
| #15 Articles like these give me hope for the future...mainly because they have the potential to cut off the money supply to the wahhabis. That means that there will be a future. Yes, we as a society need to push these ideas hard and fast. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2008-05-20 14:03 |
| #14 This really is nothing new. Those of us in the hobby of salt water aquaria (esp. coral reefs) have been using algae for a long time to cleanse the water and sequester things. Typically in a salt water aquariam, it is the nitrates and phosphates that you are attempting to sequester. We tend to use different species of algae than say slime algae as mentioned in the article. For example: Caulerpa (Grape and Razor varieties) As well as the various Turf Algae I really like to grow Halimeda although you tend not to see it in coral tanks as it is a calcifying algae and the calcium it sequesters slows down the growth of your corals. Finally, one of the most important algae to reef tanks, and perhaps the reefs in wild is another calcerous algae, and it is stunning Coraline Algae Anyway, sorry to ramble, but the article makes this use of algae seem epic, and yes, there is some new here, but thousands of "hobbyists" are doing the same thing every day (just different end goals, but same processes). |
| Posted by: bombay 2008-05-20 12:24 |
| #13 OK, so let's get on with it and choke the oil arabs off the teet. There are people dicking around with projects like this all over the world trying to get them "perfected" all the while the arabs are going for broke on prices. I'm especially frustrated with alternative fuel and electric cars, WTF is the holdup with them? Sell the damned things, even if they aren't 100% perfected. There are now 13 ME countries entering what IAEA calls advanced stages of nuclear programs, and they're doing it with our money from the gas pumps. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-05-20 10:37 |
| #12 Just wait until PAWS hears about what he's doing to enslave trillions and trillions of algae..... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-05-20 10:17 |
| #11 Since his carbon source is power plant exhaust (and not atmospheric) his process is more of an increase in efficiency to fossil fuel use than true biofuel - though once his fuel is the carbon source for the power plant he actually does break out of the fossil fuel cycle. I should think bio-engineering of algae to improve their efficiency in the process would be a terrific long-term research opportunity. |
| Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713 2008-05-20 10:09 |
| #10 RE: Chaiten volcano. FYI. Phil_b has good reason to be uneasy... |
| Posted by: ptah 2008-05-20 10:05 |
| #9 If islamic countries weren't so intent on destroying everything and everybody that doesn't want to live in the 7th century, they might be able to feed people, generate energy, develop medical breakthroughs, develop industry, develop infrastructure, etc. Wait a minute; what was I thinking there for a moment in my flight of fantasy? The Saudi fat cat's days will be numbered when mid-east oil is replaced. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-05-20 09:57 |
| #8 Look at it this way: less plants for fuel-> more plants for beer->more beer. |
| Posted by: ptah 2008-05-20 09:57 |
| #7 In this brave new world, to be called "pond scum" is to be thought of as a productive member of society. |
| Posted by: Grenter Protector of the Geats4975 2008-05-20 09:38 |
| #6 its pretty chilly for May 20th here in Chicagoland. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-05-20 09:37 |
| #5 no mo uro, it's more fundamental. No CO2, no plants, thus no beer. ;-) |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-05-20 06:44 |
| #4 Pebbles, it's a matter of degree. The levels would have to be pretty hight to acquire toxicity for a human. Hobbs is a PR man of sorts and uses the toxicity meme as a fashionable point of reference. Maybe he bought the whole GW thingy, like many others, so from that perspective, there is a solution. But he better hurry up. As things are, in a few years, when the cooling trend continues, this point may be not as readily accepted. |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-05-20 06:36 |
| #3 Exactly. Where would we be without beer? |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-05-20 05:56 |
| #2 CO2 is not a toxin. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-05-20 03:40 |
| #1 Well I agree with one thing, bio carbon capture makes far more sense than chemical carbon capture. However the whole carbon mania is fizzling out as the world's climate (along with its economy) continues to cool. Then there is the Chaiten volcano, which looks set to be the biggest eruption since Krakatoa. Already VEI5 and no sign of the final eruptive event which ejects most of the volcanic material. Better pray it isn't the biggest since Tambora. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-05-20 03:28 |