A Revolution in Energy is Coming (1 Viewer)

[joetrow]

Good stuff. Heterotrophic algae and possibly thorium is where I'm putting my educational emphasis. Biggest concern I see with renewables is that oil companies can and will price them out if they start to lose their dominance of the energy markets. At $100 a barrel a lot of these things make sense, but at $20 a barrel do any of these things make sense?

I do think algae will become green gold though. You could clean waste-water with algae, reduce runoff from farms while allowing them to produce their own bio-fuels, clean co2 emission (although I don't think algae ponds are the way to do this)... its ####### endless, and not only economical but also beneficial to the environment. And, as long as the government doesn't interfere, I don't think as a whole it can be monopolized by big businesses. They may be able to monopolize massive algae ponds, but that's the least efficient way to produce algae because of light penetration problems and the space required. Localized production of bio-fuels and other products synthesized from oil using oils derived from heterotrophic algae is where its at IMO. I'm betting my future on it.

Like, interfere by enforcing patent law? You better believe that the genetics of these GMOs will be patented. If we're very, very lucky the major breakthroughs will come from academia and the research will be publicly available.

I think the sheer number of strains of algae and ways in which they can be altered will prevent any monopolization in that respect, it will just take the know how, investment, and effort for someone to develop their own strain. What I meant was subsidies or preferential tax treatment. i.e., if producers using algae ponds have their land taxed as agricultural land while producers using bio-reactors or indoor systems have their land taxed as commercial real estate it will obviously favor those who can afford the most land. It seems like a lot of tax code and regulations push the monopolization of products by big businesses, rather than efficiency or a better business model.

 

[Johnny Rock]

Great topic. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ryan99]

Universities are just about as aggressive with IP as for profits. They need the revenue.

I'm not nearly as up on this as I should be, but aren't there rules for the intellectual property rights of the results of publicly funded research?

 

[Sand]

Interesting bit of research here. As the comments noted this process would be a significant energy consumer. However, if you have a plentiful power source (like fusion, or thorium fission) you would never have to tap the earth for oil again.

 

[Sand]

So much for peak oil in the US. New field (under some of the oldest oilfields in the US in OK) found in the Andarko region. This Woodford Shale find is almost as big as Bakken. Estimates are 1.8 billion barrels in there.

That is staggeringly huge for an area thought to be picked over already.

 

[roadkill1292]

So much for peak oil in the US. New field (under some of the oldest oilfields in the US in OK) found in the Andarko region. This Woodford Shale find is almost as big as Bakken. Estimates are 1.8 billion barrels in there.

That is staggeringly huge for an area thought to be picked over already.

This is good news on the foreign dependency front anyway. The down side of finding new sources of oil, however, is that I think it tends to discourage alternative fuel research.

 

[Sand]

So much for peak oil in the US. New field (under some of the oldest oilfields in the US in OK) found in the Andarko region. This Woodford Shale find is almost as big as Bakken. Estimates are 1.8 billion barrels in there.

That is staggeringly huge for an area thought to be picked over already.

This is good news on the foreign dependency front anyway. The down side of finding new sources of oil, however, is that I think it tends to discourage alternative fuel research.

Meh - we've hit peak CO2 emissions already, so we are really headed in the right direction regardless of conventional energy finds. They peaked in 2007 and have been in decline ever since; we are now at 1993 levels. And honestly I don't see items like this changing research efforts.

 

[Ryan99]

This is good news on the foreign dependency front anyway. The down side of finding new sources of oil, however, is that I think it tends to discourage alternative fuel research.

Disagree on the first point. This is a common misconception about our "dependency on foreign oil". The oil market is a world market, it's not like we set aside some domestically drilled oil to only be used in this country like some other oil producing countries do (the ones with nationalized oil production like many South American and Middle Eastern countries). This new found oil, if its drilled (I think it's like 20 years from discovery to refined product), will simply be added to the world market.

 

[roadkill1292]

This is good news on the foreign dependency front anyway. The down side of finding new sources of oil, however, is that I think it tends to discourage alternative fuel research.

Disagree on the first point. This is a common misconception about our "dependency on foreign oil". The oil market is a world market, it's not like we set aside some domestically drilled oil to only be used in this country like some other oil producing countries do (the ones with nationalized oil production like many South American and Middle Eastern countries). This new found oil, if its drilled (I think it's like 20 years from discovery to refined product), will simply be added to the world market.

It won't be nationalized and/or production monkeyed with to manipulate pricing and cause economic upheaval in the western world. Keeping the region stabilized so the pipes stay open has been the driving force behind the bulk of our defense spending for almost five decades now. We rarely have to send the troops into Oklahoma.

 

[Ryan99]

This is good news on the foreign dependency front anyway. The down side of finding new sources of oil, however, is that I think it tends to discourage alternative fuel research.

Disagree on the first point. This is a common misconception about our "dependency on foreign oil". The oil market is a world market, it's not like we set aside some domestically drilled oil to only be used in this country like some other oil producing countries do (the ones with nationalized oil production like many South American and Middle Eastern countries). This new found oil, if its drilled (I think it's like 20 years from discovery to refined product), will simply be added to the world market.

It won't be nationalized and/or production monkeyed with to manipulate pricing and cause economic upheaval in the western world. Keeping the region stabilized so the pipes stay open has been the driving force behind the bulk of our defense spending for almost five decades now. We rarely have to send the troops into Oklahoma.

Exactly. So unless we're prepared to do that (I actually think nationalizing our oil would be hugely beneficial to US citizens, but that's an aside), opening more fields is not going to significantly affect our dependence on foreign oil.

 

[El Floppo]

 

[roadkill1292]

This is good news on the foreign dependency front anyway. The down side of finding new sources of oil, however, is that I think it tends to discourage alternative fuel research.

Disagree on the first point. This is a common misconception about our "dependency on foreign oil". The oil market is a world market, it's not like we set aside some domestically drilled oil to only be used in this country like some other oil producing countries do (the ones with nationalized oil production like many South American and Middle Eastern countries). This new found oil, if its drilled (I think it's like 20 years from discovery to refined product), will simply be added to the world market.

It won't be nationalized and/or production monkeyed with to manipulate pricing and cause economic upheaval in the western world. Keeping the region stabilized so the pipes stay open has been the driving force behind the bulk of our defense spending for almost five decades now. We rarely have to send the troops into Oklahoma.

Exactly. So unless we're prepared to do that (I actually think nationalizing our oil would be hugely beneficial to US citizens, but that's an aside), opening more fields is not going to significantly affect our dependence on foreign oil.

I think we should nationalize the NFL.

 

[Sand]

Yet another superb idea on the way to energy independence - how about adding an auxiliary section to every power plant that increases capacity by 40% at a cost of a few cents per kilowatt hour? And zero environmental impact.

And controlled tornadoes are just cool.

 

[cstu]

Algae Fuel Could Help Solve The Navy’s Oil DependenceThursday, January 17, 2013By Tom FudgeAired 1/17/13An ambitious goal to reduce the use of fossil fuels looks to algae as a way to power the fleet."And sometimes we buy it from counties that may or may not have the same interests as us. But we need the fuel to operate,” he said, adding that it would be “prudent” to develop a domestic source that gives the Navy assured mobility.“We must always have something that allows us to go forth and do our mission as tasked by the nation," said Goudreau.UCSD molecular biologist Stephen Mayfield says algae fuel is a excellent alternative to fossil fuel because it can be used for all existing navy ships and aircraft.UCSD molecular biologist Stephen Mayfield says algae fuel is a excellent alternative to fossil fuel because it can be used for all existing navy ships and aircraft.The Navy ships and aircraft in San Diego still run predominantly on petroleum. But that may change soon. In fact, though Goudreau works at the Pentagon, he said he was standing on a pier in San Diego last fall to see a Navy ship pull away under the power of biofuel. What’s more, one of the alternatives the Navy is testing is algae fuel, which San Diego scientists are working to develop.Goudreau said the Navy's search for alternative fuels has shown that some are far from ideal. He said biodiesel can damage equipment and gum up filters. Another alternative, ethanol, has low energy density. Fill a ship's tank with that, he said, and it will go only half as far.What the Navy needs are fuels that can literally take the place of petroleum. The Navy calls them drop-in fuels."The key for us is to get an operational fuel that will go straight into our aircraft and straight into our ships,” said Goudreau, “without having to change any of the engineering inside the ships, and without having to change any of the storage or distribution infrastructure. It's got to be a true drop-in fuel."And this is where algae comes in.Algae fuel is an alternative the Navy is testing. UC San Diego molecular biologist Steve Mayfield is a founder of Sapphire Energy, a San Diego-based company that is already producing algae fuel at its demonstration plant in New Mexico. Some of it has been converted for use as jet fuel. Mayfield now serves on the company's science advisory board. He said the Navy has a proud history of transitioning between energy sources."This is the group that took us from wind power to coal, from coal to petroleum, and from petroleum to nuclear power,” said Mayfield. “They just have a fantastic history of a can-do approach to... ‘Our adversaries have new technology and we've got to up the game.’ And they do."Mayfield said algae makes an ideal drop-in fuel because it's basically the same as the petroleum we have pumped out of the ground."(Petroleum) was simply ancient algae that had been covered over by shallow seas and then was covered over by silt and dirt,” said Mayfield. “The algae’s proteins and carbohydrates degraded away, leaving the fat, which we call crude oil. So the algae we produce in ponds today makes the same stuff."Mayfield said while the Navy's primary concern is national security it should also worry about global warming, since it would have to deal with the mess that is created by rising sea levels and refugees fleeing drought-stricken areas.But if algae fuel is the same stuff as petroleum, why would it be any better for stopping global warming? Mayfield said when you use algae there's no net gain in greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere. That’s because when you grow algae it consumes the same carbon it produces when you burn its oil.Some people wonder whether the Navy’s calculation would change if American production of shale oil increases to the point where the Navy could get enough oil from domestic sources? Naval Secretary Ray Mabus has said even if that happened, oil is still a world commodity and it's still subject to shortages and price shocks the US cannot control.Despite the glowing reviews of a possible algae solution, the fuel is still in the testing phase and there’s not nearly enough out there to launch a thousand ships. Captain Goudreau said, for the Navy, cost will be an issue."We're not going to buy large quantities for normal operations until it's a cost-competitive product," he said.Mayfield responded by saying that means the industry has to move beyond simply building demonstration plants and start building commercial facilities."And by going to that commercial size," he said, "you can demonstrate the reduction of costs you get from economies of scale."

 

[roadkill1292]

Algae Fuel Could Help Solve The Navy’s Oil Dependence

Algae fuel is an alternative the Navy is testing. UC San Diego molecular biologist Steve Mayfield is a founder of Sapphire Energy, a San Diego-based company that is already producing algae fuel at its demonstration plant in New Mexico. Some of it has been converted for use as jet fuel. Mayfield now serves on the company's science advisory board. He said the Navy has a proud history of transitioning between energy sources.

That's the same company Sand linked to in his first post. They're the ones who say they've got production costs down to that of petroleum's and are planning some big slime farms in New Mexico. If they land a Navy contract to run some warships, they could really take off, assuming the science is as sound as they claim.

 

[St. Louis Bob]

Coal: the cleanest energy source there is?

Researchers have discovered a stunning new process that takes the energy from coal without burning it -- and removes virtually all of the pollution.The clean coal technique was developed by scientists at The Ohio State University, with just $5 million in funding from the federal government, and took 15 years to achieve.“We’ve been working on this for more than a decade,” Liang-Shih Fan, a chemical engineer and director of OSU’s Clean Coal Research Laboratory, told FoxNews.com, calling it a new energy conversion process. “We found a way to release the heat from coal without burning.”The process removes 99 percent of the pollution from coal, which some scientists link to global warming. Coal-burning power plants produced about one-third of the nation’s carbon dioxide total in 2010, or about 2.3 billion metric tons, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).Retrofitting them with the new process would be costly, but it would cut billions of tons of pollution.“In the simplest sense, conventional combustion is a chemical reaction that consumes oxygen and produces heat,” Fan fold FoxNews.com. “Unfortunately, it also produces carbon dioxide, which is difficult to capture and bad for the environment.”And simply put, the new process isn't.Heating, Not Burning, CoalFan discovered a way to heat coal, using iron-oxide pellets for an oxygen source and containing the reaction in a small, heated chamber from which pollutants cannot escape. The only waste product is therefore water and coal ash -- no greenhouse gases. As an added benefit, the metal from the iron-oxide can be recycled.“Oxidation” is the chemical combination of a substance with oxygen. Contrast this with old-fashioned, coal-fired plants, which use oxygen to burn the coal and generate heat. This in turn makes steam, which turns giant turbines and sends power down electric lines.The main by-product of that old process — carbon dioxide, known chemically as CO2 — is released through smokestacks into the earth’s atmosphere.Fan’s process, called “coal-direct chemical looping,” has been proven in a small scale lab at OSU. The next step is to take it to a larger test facility in Alabama, and Fan believes the technology can be commercialized and used to power an energy plant within five to 10 years, if all goes smoothly. The technology generated 25 kilowatts of thermal energy in current tests; the Alabama site will generate 250 kilowatts.Can Coal Ever Be 'Clean'?Some environmentalists are skeptical of the technology, and of the idea of clean coal in general.“Claiming that coal is clean because it could be clean -- if a new technically unproven and economically dubious technology might be adopted -- is like someone claiming that belladonna is not poisonous because there is a new unproven safe pill under development,” wrote Donald Brown at liberal think tank Climate Progress.Yet the federal Department of Energy believes that the process can create 20 megawatts to 50 megawatts by 2020, said Jared Ciferno, the agency’s director of coal and power-production research and development, in a statement.The government plans to continue to support the project, as well as the concept of "clean coal" in general.Meanwhile, Fan is exploring the possibility of establishing a start-up company and licensing the process to utilities, and has the potential to patent 35 different parts of the process.Other scientists and experts are enthused about the prospects for this technology.Yan Feng with Argonne National Laboratory's Environmental Science Division, Climate Research Section, called it “an advancement in chemical engineering. “It is very important that we act on CO2 capturing and sequestration as well as emission controls of other warming agents like tropospheric ozone and black carbon."Adds a spokesman for Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical Company, a global Fortune 250 chemical manufacturer that works in clean energy, “researchers continue to uncover innovative ways to use coal efficiently/sustainably.”Concludes Dawei Wang, a research associate at OSU, the technology's potential benefits even go beyond the environment and issues like sustainability."The plant could really promote our energy independence. Not only can we use America's natural resources such as Ohio coal, but we can keep our air clean and spur the economy with jobs,” he said.Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/02/20/coal-cleanest-energy-source-there-is/#ixzz2LZZU1uk8

 

[cstu]

“Claiming that coal is clean because it could be clean -- if a new technically unproven and economically dubious technology might be adopted -- is like someone claiming that belladonna is not poisonous because there is a new unproven safe pill under development,” wrote Donald Brown at liberal think tank Climate Progress.

Clean isn't clean unless it fits our agenda.

 

[Sand]

Fan’s process, called “coal-direct chemical looping,” has been proven in a small scale lab at OSU. The next step is to take it to a larger test facility in Alabama, and Fan believes the technology can be commercialized and used to power an energy plant within five to 10 years, if all goes smoothly. The technology generated 25 kilowatts of thermal energy in current tests; the Alabama site will generate 250 kilowatts.

Way cool. And as a note my company runs parts of this facility. (I don't do this type of work - just cool happenstance).

 

[roadkill1292]

We had a thread two years ago about an outfit called Bixby Energy which claimed to have a working clean coal burning process. Unfortunately, they turned out to be scam artists and all the top officers are in jail now for fraud. It's good to see a state university working on the concept, maybe they'll bring a professionalism and credibility that Bixby lacked. Seems like a real tough technology to develop, though.

 

[jamny]

Very encouraging to read some of the advances described in this thread. I really thought that solar would be a more viable solution by now. What cleaner, more efficient source of power could there be than the sun?

 

[NCCommish]

“Claiming that coal is clean because it could be clean -- if a new technically unproven and economically dubious technology might be adopted -- is like someone claiming that belladonna is not poisonous because there is a new unproven safe pill under development,” wrote Donald Brown at liberal think tank Climate Progress.

Clean isn't clean unless it fits our agenda.

Well it was badly said but I think where he was coming from is we have been being told about clean coal for a while and it doesn't really exist so far. Which didn't stop people from campaigning on it despite the fact it didn't exist. Now with that said for me this seems like a good thing but we do need to wait for a little more proof of concept to proclaim the clean coal revolution.

 

[NCCommish]

Very encouraging to read some of the advances described in this thread. I really thought that solar would be a more viable solution by now. What cleaner, more efficient source of power could there be than the sun?

Huge strides are being made in solar. Just a couple of months ago the first panels to break 33% appeared. And a month later Princeton announced a new way to do cells that greatly decreases reflectivity and therefore may make them up to 175% more efficient than the most efficient organic cells we currently use. Once we get storage down solar is poised to explode.

 

[jamny]

Very encouraging to read some of the advances described in this thread. I really thought that solar would be a more viable solution by now. What cleaner, more efficient source of power could there be than the sun?

Huge strides are being made in solar. Just a couple of months ago the first panels to break 33% appeared. And a month later Princeton announced a new way to do cells that greatly decreases reflectivity and therefore may make them up to 175% more efficient than the most efficient organic cells we currently use. Once we get storage down solar is poised to explode.

I hope so. It seems like since the 70's I've been hearing how solar is the wave of the future in energy.

 

[NCCommish]

Very encouraging to read some of the advances described in this thread. I really thought that solar would be a more viable solution by now. What cleaner, more efficient source of power could there be than the sun?

Huge strides are being made in solar. Just a couple of months ago the first panels to break 33% appeared. And a month later Princeton announced a new way to do cells that greatly decreases reflectivity and therefore may make them up to 175% more efficient than the most efficient organic cells we currently use. Once we get storage down solar is poised to explode.

I hope so. It seems like since the 70's I've been hearing how solar is the wave of the future in energy.

Yeah it has taken a while. But unfortunately cheap oil took away the incentive to continue development after a pop in the 70's. Now I think the momentum is there to carry this forward as solar gets way more competitive.

 

[Henry Ford]

Algae Fuel Could Help Solve The Navy’s Oil Dependence

Algae fuel is an alternative the Navy is testing. UC San Diego molecular biologist Steve Mayfield is a founder of Sapphire Energy, a San Diego-based company that is already producing algae fuel at its demonstration plant in New Mexico. Some of it has been converted for use as jet fuel. Mayfield now serves on the company's science advisory board. He said the Navy has a proud history of transitioning between energy sources.

That's the same company Sand linked to in his first post. They're the ones who say they've got production costs down to that of petroleum's and are planning some big slime farms in New Mexico. If they land a Navy contract to run some warships, they could really take off, assuming the science is as sound as they claim.

I had no idea we'd gotten far enough to use algae as jet fuel.One of thhe things we happen to have in this country is lnd. It'd be nice to take advantage and use it to get the next big energy idea rolling.

 

[Sand]

Oh, boy. Here it comes. Looks like there is very compelling evidence that low energy nuclear reactions are real. Forbes article. A more in depth set of slides here. Of all things the CFL forced government revolution seems to be partially to credit, as the reactions that have been found to be occurring inside CFLs to the trace amounts of mercury that folks have been worried about for so long. The Hg found in bulbs that have been around for a while are coming out with isotope concentrations that make no sense unless something "interesting" is going on in there. LENR is around us all the time and we have just really started to pick up on it.

So what does this mean? That there really does appear to be something to cold fusion. Once this enters the mainstream (IMO, this puts it there) lots of attention and research money will follow. I expect this pretty soon.

This is big. Huge.

Oh, in other not so dramatic news - the US is now the single largest producer of petroleum products in the world. We have just overtaken Saudi Arabia. This, at least in the shorter term, is also huge.

 

[roadkill1292]

Va Tech scientist develops cheap hydrogen process?

I don't know much about hydrogen fuel cell technology but this fellow at Va Tech claims to use a new process to achieve a net energy gain out of just about any kind of plant. Has the problem with hydrogen fuel for automobiles been one of expense, engineering or supply? Or something else or some combination of all these things?

 

[NCCommish]

Va Tech scientist develops cheap hydrogen process?

I don't know much about hydrogen fuel cell technology but this fellow at Va Tech claims to use a new process to achieve a net energy gain out of just about any kind of plant. Has the problem with hydrogen fuel for automobiles been one of expense, engineering or supply? Or something else or some combination of all these things?

Supply is easy enough. You can make hydrogen so many ways. The expense of going mass market and engineering of how to make it so the hydrogen tank doesn't outweigh the vehicle has been the problem with getting hydrogen into transportation.

 

[NCCommish]

Oh, boy. Here it comes. Looks like there is very compelling evidence that low energy nuclear reactions are real. Forbes article. A more in depth set of slides here. Of all things the CFL forced government revolution seems to be partially to credit, as the reactions that have been found to be occurring inside CFLs to the trace amounts of mercury that folks have been worried about for so long. The Hg found in bulbs that have been around for a while are coming out with isotope concentrations that make no sense unless something "interesting" is going on in there. LENR is around us all the time and we have just really started to pick up on it.

So what does this mean? That there really does appear to be something to cold fusion. Once this enters the mainstream (IMO, this puts it there) lots of attention and research money will follow. I expect this pretty soon.

This is big. Huge.

Oh, in other not so dramatic news - the US is now the single largest producer of petroleum products in the world. We have just overtaken Saudi Arabia. This, at least in the shorter term, is also huge.

The LENR thing is really remarkable. Not sure the production thing matters much as crude oil isn't priced off us or the Saudis really but against other sources. That's why ramping up production doesn't cut costs for us.

 

[roadkill1292]

Successful LENR development changes everything. And the big boys of research are taking it seriously these days, which makes a wild-eyed optimist like me pretty hopeful.

This thread needs to be bumped on at least a weekly basis. There's always something new happening in energy science.

 

[Mario Kart]

Where does this fit in the grand scheme of things?

In what is essentially a fancy science fair sponsored by Intel, over 1,700 high school seniors enter projects each year in order to not only be crowned the country’s youngest mad scientists, but have a chance to win $100,000. This year, Sara Volz claimed that crown and a $100,000 four-year scholarship, thanks to her efficient algae-based biofuel lab — that she created under her bed.

The Science Talent Search has been running for 70 years, and Intel hopped on board as the sponsor back in 1998. Since the competition’s beginning, seven participants have won the Nobel Prize, and 11 have won MacArthur Foundation Genius grants. So, the competition has a bit of pedigree. Up to 30 finalists receive a monetary scholarship, with first place bringing home $100,000, second place bringing home $75,000, and third place raking in $50,000. This year, 17-year-old Colorado Springs student Sara Volz took explored if algae can become an economically viable form of biofuel. Like any good high school or college project, she developed the majority of the system in her room, under her loft bed.

Algae was chosen as the target because it produces an oil that can be used as a sustainable fuel. The algae-based fuel also happens to be renewable, as the algae can continue producing it. However, algae-based biofuel can be quite expensive, and it’s difficult to discern which organisms are producing larger amounts of fuel. Locating the source of the larger amounts of fuel being produced can decrease costs by increasing output from single sources, which is what Volz set out to do.

In order to keep watch over her experiment, Volz actually slept according to the same light cycle that her algae needed in order to grow. Using a pesticide, sethoxydim, Volz killed off the algae that was producing a small amount of oil, thus allowing the more efficient producers to thrive. In turn, Volz’s system only had to spend resources and energy maintaining the efficient producers. The end result of her project is a process that can produce algae-based biofuel more efficiently, and if anything, stands as something of a proof-of-concept for commercially viable biofuel. (See: Nuclear power is our only hope, or, the greatest environmentalist hypocrisy of all time.)

Of course, as oil is a non-renewable resource, society will be looking for some kind of sustainable, renewable resource as time moves on and oil becomes more rare. Volz’s project didn’t just replace oil as a prized resource, nor did it invent some kind of alternative. What it did, though, is prove that an alternative is possible — and not entirely difficult. Perhaps scientists should install loft beds in labs across the world in order to get their science juices flowing and kick start a fuel revolution.

 

[NCCommish]

Where does this fit in the grand scheme of things?

In what is essentially a fancy science fair sponsored by Intel, over 1,700 high school seniors enter projects each year in order to not only be crowned the country’s youngest mad scientists, but have a chance to win $100,000. This year, Sara Volz claimed that crown and a $100,000 four-year scholarship, thanks to her efficient algae-based biofuel lab — that she created under her bed.

The Science Talent Search has been running for 70 years, and Intel hopped on board as the sponsor back in 1998. Since the competition’s beginning, seven participants have won the Nobel Prize, and 11 have won MacArthur Foundation Genius grants. So, the competition has a bit of pedigree. Up to 30 finalists receive a monetary scholarship, with first place bringing home $100,000, second place bringing home $75,000, and third place raking in $50,000. This year, 17-year-old Colorado Springs student Sara Volz took explored if algae can become an economically viable form of biofuel. Like any good high school or college project, she developed the majority of the system in her room, under her loft bed.

Algae was chosen as the target because it produces an oil that can be used as a sustainable fuel. The algae-based fuel also happens to be renewable, as the algae can continue producing it. However, algae-based biofuel can be quite expensive, and it’s difficult to discern which organisms are producing larger amounts of fuel. Locating the source of the larger amounts of fuel being produced can decrease costs by increasing output from single sources, which is what Volz set out to do.

In order to keep watch over her experiment, Volz actually slept according to the same light cycle that her algae needed in order to grow. Using a pesticide, sethoxydim, Volz killed off the algae that was producing a small amount of oil, thus allowing the more efficient producers to thrive. In turn, Volz’s system only had to spend resources and energy maintaining the efficient producers. The end result of her project is a process that can produce algae-based biofuel more efficiently, and if anything, stands as something of a proof-of-concept for commercially viable biofuel. (See: Nuclear power is our only hope, or, the greatest environmentalist hypocrisy of all time.)

Of course, as oil is a non-renewable resource, society will be looking for some kind of sustainable, renewable resource as time moves on and oil becomes more rare. Volz’s project didn’t just replace oil as a prized resource, nor did it invent some kind of alternative. What it did, though, is prove that an alternative is possible — and not entirely difficult. Perhaps scientists should install loft beds in labs across the world in order to get their science juices flowing and kick start a fuel revolution.

Well I prefer we move to an electricity based transportation system, preferably with non-fossil fuel based production, so if we could really make oil without drilling for oil that wouldn't be at all bad.

 

[roadkill1292]

Where does this fit in the grand scheme of things?

In what is essentially a fancy science fair sponsored by Intel, over 1,700 high school seniors enter projects each year in order to not only be crowned the country’s youngest mad scientists, but have a chance to win $100,000. This year, Sara Volz claimed that crown and a $100,000 four-year scholarship, thanks to her efficient algae-based biofuel lab — that she created under her bed.

The Science Talent Search has been running for 70 years, and Intel hopped on board as the sponsor back in 1998. Since the competition’s beginning, seven participants have won the Nobel Prize, and 11 have won MacArthur Foundation Genius grants. So, the competition has a bit of pedigree. Up to 30 finalists receive a monetary scholarship, with first place bringing home $100,000, second place bringing home $75,000, and third place raking in $50,000. This year, 17-year-old Colorado Springs student Sara Volz took explored if algae can become an economically viable form of biofuel. Like any good high school or college project, she developed the majority of the system in her room, under her loft bed.

Algae was chosen as the target because it produces an oil that can be used as a sustainable fuel. The algae-based fuel also happens to be renewable, as the algae can continue producing it. However, algae-based biofuel can be quite expensive, and it’s difficult to discern which organisms are producing larger amounts of fuel. Locating the source of the larger amounts of fuel being produced can decrease costs by increasing output from single sources, which is what Volz set out to do.

In order to keep watch over her experiment, Volz actually slept according to the same light cycle that her algae needed in order to grow. Using a pesticide, sethoxydim, Volz killed off the algae that was producing a small amount of oil, thus allowing the more efficient producers to thrive. In turn, Volz’s system only had to spend resources and energy maintaining the efficient producers. The end result of her project is a process that can produce algae-based biofuel more efficiently, and if anything, stands as something of a proof-of-concept for commercially viable biofuel. (See: Nuclear power is our only hope, or, the greatest environmentalist hypocrisy of all time.)

Of course, as oil is a non-renewable resource, society will be looking for some kind of sustainable, renewable resource as time moves on and oil becomes more rare. Volz’s project didn’t just replace oil as a prized resource, nor did it invent some kind of alternative. What it did, though, is prove that an alternative is possible — and not entirely difficult. Perhaps scientists should install loft beds in labs across the world in order to get their science juices flowing and kick start a fuel revolution.

Well I prefer we move to an electricity based transportation system, preferably with non-fossil fuel based production, so if we could really make oil without drilling for oil that wouldn't be at all bad.

Algae oil is a wonderful concept that I hope is avidly pursued in the near future. It potentially has big environmental and national security advantages over fossil fuels.

But in addition to having those traditional fossil fuels as a competitor, it also has to face the development of things like the aforementioned LENR technology. If we find our way to cheap electrical power, we'll fuel the global fleet with electricity, not oil-based fuel of any kind.

People here know not to get me started on this.

 

[Mario Kart]

Where does this fit in the grand scheme of things?

In what is essentially a fancy science fair sponsored by Intel, over 1,700 high school seniors enter projects each year in order to not only be crowned the country’s youngest mad scientists, but have a chance to win $100,000. This year, Sara Volz claimed that crown and a $100,000 four-year scholarship, thanks to her efficient algae-based biofuel lab — that she created under her bed.

The Science Talent Search has been running for 70 years, and Intel hopped on board as the sponsor back in 1998. Since the competition’s beginning, seven participants have won the Nobel Prize, and 11 have won MacArthur Foundation Genius grants. So, the competition has a bit of pedigree. Up to 30 finalists receive a monetary scholarship, with first place bringing home $100,000, second place bringing home $75,000, and third place raking in $50,000. This year, 17-year-old Colorado Springs student Sara Volz took explored if algae can become an economically viable form of biofuel. Like any good high school or college project, she developed the majority of the system in her room, under her loft bed.

Algae was chosen as the target because it produces an oil that can be used as a sustainable fuel. The algae-based fuel also happens to be renewable, as the algae can continue producing it. However, algae-based biofuel can be quite expensive, and it’s difficult to discern which organisms are producing larger amounts of fuel. Locating the source of the larger amounts of fuel being produced can decrease costs by increasing output from single sources, which is what Volz set out to do.

In order to keep watch over her experiment, Volz actually slept according to the same light cycle that her algae needed in order to grow. Using a pesticide, sethoxydim, Volz killed off the algae that was producing a small amount of oil, thus allowing the more efficient producers to thrive. In turn, Volz’s system only had to spend resources and energy maintaining the efficient producers. The end result of her project is a process that can produce algae-based biofuel more efficiently, and if anything, stands as something of a proof-of-concept for commercially viable biofuel. (See: Nuclear power is our only hope, or, the greatest environmentalist hypocrisy of all time.)

Of course, as oil is a non-renewable resource, society will be looking for some kind of sustainable, renewable resource as time moves on and oil becomes more rare. Volz’s project didn’t just replace oil as a prized resource, nor did it invent some kind of alternative. What it did, though, is prove that an alternative is possible — and not entirely difficult. Perhaps scientists should install loft beds in labs across the world in order to get their science juices flowing and kick start a fuel revolution.

Well I prefer we move to an electricity based transportation system, preferably with non-fossil fuel based production, so if we could really make oil without drilling for oil that wouldn't be at all bad.

Algae oil is a wonderful concept that I hope is avidly pursued in the near future. It potentially has big environmental and national security advantages over fossil fuels.

But in addition to having those traditional fossil fuels as a competitor, it also has to face the development of things like the aforementioned LENR technology. If we find our way to cheap electrical power, we'll fuel the global fleet with electricity, not oil-based fuel of any kind.

People here know not to get me started on this.

What, if any, impact will her "discovery" have on algae in general? Where can this stuff be used and in what capacity?

I ask because her "discovery" seems pretty significant since she did it on very little money and seems to impact big businesses.

 

[roadkill1292]

Where does this fit in the grand scheme of things?

In what is essentially a fancy science fair sponsored by Intel, over 1,700 high school seniors enter projects each year in order to not only be crowned the country’s youngest mad scientists, but have a chance to win $100,000. This year, Sara Volz claimed that crown and a $100,000 four-year scholarship, thanks to her efficient algae-based biofuel lab — that she created under her bed.

The Science Talent Search has been running for 70 years, and Intel hopped on board as the sponsor back in 1998. Since the competition’s beginning, seven participants have won the Nobel Prize, and 11 have won MacArthur Foundation Genius grants. So, the competition has a bit of pedigree. Up to 30 finalists receive a monetary scholarship, with first place bringing home $100,000, second place bringing home $75,000, and third place raking in $50,000. This year, 17-year-old Colorado Springs student Sara Volz took explored if algae can become an economically viable form of biofuel. Like any good high school or college project, she developed the majority of the system in her room, under her loft bed.

Algae was chosen as the target because it produces an oil that can be used as a sustainable fuel. The algae-based fuel also happens to be renewable, as the algae can continue producing it. However, algae-based biofuel can be quite expensive, and it’s difficult to discern which organisms are producing larger amounts of fuel. Locating the source of the larger amounts of fuel being produced can decrease costs by increasing output from single sources, which is what Volz set out to do.

In order to keep watch over her experiment, Volz actually slept according to the same light cycle that her algae needed in order to grow. Using a pesticide, sethoxydim, Volz killed off the algae that was producing a small amount of oil, thus allowing the more efficient producers to thrive. In turn, Volz’s system only had to spend resources and energy maintaining the efficient producers. The end result of her project is a process that can produce algae-based biofuel more efficiently, and if anything, stands as something of a proof-of-concept for commercially viable biofuel. (See: Nuclear power is our only hope, or, the greatest environmentalist hypocrisy of all time.)

Of course, as oil is a non-renewable resource, society will be looking for some kind of sustainable, renewable resource as time moves on and oil becomes more rare. Volz’s project didn’t just replace oil as a prized resource, nor did it invent some kind of alternative. What it did, though, is prove that an alternative is possible — and not entirely difficult. Perhaps scientists should install loft beds in labs across the world in order to get their science juices flowing and kick start a fuel revolution.

Well I prefer we move to an electricity based transportation system, preferably with non-fossil fuel based production, so if we could really make oil without drilling for oil that wouldn't be at all bad.

Algae oil is a wonderful concept that I hope is avidly pursued in the near future. It potentially has big environmental and national security advantages over fossil fuels.

But in addition to having those traditional fossil fuels as a competitor, it also has to face the development of things like the aforementioned LENR technology. If we find our way to cheap electrical power, we'll fuel the global fleet with electricity, not oil-based fuel of any kind.

People here know not to get me started on this.

What, if any, impact will her "discovery" have on algae in general? Where can this stuff be used and in what capacity?

I ask because her "discovery" seems pretty significant since she did it on very little money and seems to impact big businesses.

You ought to spend an hour or three reading this thread and some of the neat links. Sand provided some good ones re: algae oil, including a company that's powering a Navy warship experimentally and which claims to have already gotten the production costs down to that of petroleum. If this young lady has figured out a tweak that ramps up production even more, that seems to me that it would only accelerate the viability of biofuel refinement. Big ups to her.

 

[roadkill1292]

If we can solve the supply problem, this seems to be a better solution than batteries. If all the roads are electrified, the range problem disappears. Burying cables in the roadways would certainly be a realistic infrastructure achievement.

 

[DiStefano]

If we can solve the supply problem, this seems to be a better solution than batteries. If all the roads are electrified, the range problem disappears. Burying cables in the roadways would certainly be a realistic infrastructure achievement.

That would work fine until they ran across Jimmy Hoffa's body. Then it would be declared a national shrine.

 

[Sand]

Lots of stuff happening in this arena, some sketchy (Brillouin cold fusion), some pretty cool (solar cells up to 44.7% efficient), and some mind-blowingly awesome (super supercapacitors - imagine charging an electric car in 2 minutes).,

If those graphene capacitors work as they are described they could literally change the world. Awesome times we live in.

 

[timschochet]

I love reading this thread. Always gives me hope.

 

[cstu]

Lots of stuff happening in this arena, some sketchy (Brillouin cold fusion), some pretty cool (solar cells up to 44.7% efficient), and some mind-blowingly awesome (super supercapacitors - imagine charging an electric car in 2 minutes).,

If those graphene capacitors work as they are described they could literally change the world. Awesome times we live in.

Just wait until those super super supercapacitors come out.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

I love this stuff.

 

[NCCommish]

Lots of stuff happening in this arena, some sketchy (Brillouin cold fusion), some pretty cool (solar cells up to 44.7% efficient), and some mind-blowingly awesome (super supercapacitors - imagine charging an electric car in 2 minutes).,

If those graphene capacitors work as they are described they could literally change the world. Awesome times we live in.

Just wait until those super super supercapacitors come out.

That's super duper super capacitors.

 

[NCCommish]

Seriously though that tech is pretty awesome.

 

[proninja]

science is neat

 

[Sand]

Lots of stuff happening in this arena, some sketchy (Brillouin cold fusion), some pretty cool (solar cells up to 44.7% efficient), and some mind-blowingly awesome (super supercapacitors - imagine charging an electric car in 2 minutes).,

If those graphene capacitors work as they are described they could literally change the world. Awesome times we live in.

Just wait until those super super supercapacitors come out.

That's super duper super capacitors.

Yeah, I think ACME used to sell those. Wil E Coyote bought them out.

Didn't end well.

 

[NCCommish]

Lots of stuff happening in this arena, some sketchy (Brillouin cold fusion), some pretty cool (solar cells up to 44.7% efficient), and some mind-blowingly awesome (super supercapacitors - imagine charging an electric car in 2 minutes).,

If those graphene capacitors work as they are described they could literally change the world. Awesome times we live in.

Just wait until those super super supercapacitors come out.

That's super duper super capacitors.

Yeah, I think ACME used to sell those. Wil E Coyote bought them out.

Didn't end well.

To be fair they were still in beta.

 

[Mister CIA]

It started nearly two weeks ago, but UTexas has an online course called Energy 101 at the EDx.org site: https://www.edx.org/course/utaustin/ut-1-01x/energy-101/667

Solar energy course (began Sept 16th): https://www.edx.org/course/delft-university-technology/et3034tux/solar-energy/770

 

[Sand]

The National Ignition Facility achieves greater than unity energy out of fusion reactions.

Certainly not the end of the story as it doesn't appear to be energy extracted, but it is a huge step in the right direction.

 

[roadkill1292]

The National Ignition Facility achieves greater than unity energy out of fusion reactions.

Certainly not the end of the story as it doesn't appear to be energy extracted, but it is a huge step in the right direction.

What they're working on is so difficult that I can't blame the multitude of doubters for feeling the way they do. But while there's no guarantee of eventual success, the payoff is so great that we should all be rooting for them.

 

[NCCommish]

The National Ignition Facility achieves greater than unity energy out of fusion reactions.

Certainly not the end of the story as it doesn't appear to be energy extracted, but it is a huge step in the right direction.

What they're working on is so difficult that I can't blame the multitude of doubters for feeling the way they do. But while there's no guarantee of eventual success, the payoff is so great that we should all be rooting for them.

Yeah if they can make it work it would be hard to overstate the long term impacts.