Biofuel from Algae

By 2025 Exxon Mobil plans to produce 10,000 barrels of algae biofuel per day.

Exxon Mobil

If the United States consumes 20 million barrels of oil per day then 10,000 barrels a day represents 0.005% of the total.

Or 0.05%. Anyway a small number.

...and very expensive.

Exxon Mobil claims that they have researched ways to lower the cost. They work on ways to increase the algae's lipid content and ways to increase the rate of photosynthesis.

They also brag about using a photovoltaic process to extract energy from carbon dioxide and water from the combustion of methane. Then they would use that energy to store the carbon dioxide.

What would they do with the carbon dioxide? Maybe feed it to the the algae.

OK, let's say they reduce the cost by half. Then the cost would ONLY be the equivalent of $400 per barrel of oil.

I stand by my statement of "...and very expensive."

What is the catalyst, other than cost, that will switch us from petroleum fuels (primary fuel platform) to anything else (to include algae, corn or electric)?

I can't think of anything else.

Even the climate change concern isn't enough to persuade the average person to look for something other than what's at the local gas station. It's there and available.

The only inducement is cost. Either gas becomes too expensive or the alternatives are offered as a much cheaper solution.

Yeah, probably right. They don't talk about the cost, and they probably get some kind of Federal Government grant to do the research. The feds must hand out hundreds of grants a year. They promote things like grass farming that produces fuel for coal fired power stations or converting things like turkey offal and used-automobile tires to fuel.

A really famous grant here in California went to a company that makes photovoltaic panels. Governor Schwarzenegger and President Obama showed up for the publicity about how they had created green jobs. Then the company moved the factory to China. Kind of funny, actually.

I used to live in Anaheim. The city collects yard waste that they take to a facility where it rots. That produces methane, which produces electricity.

When I read about it, I thought, "Wow, totally cool." Turns out, the process is, (may I quote you?), "expensive." The plant could not operating without its government grant.

Most, if not all, "green" energy projects run on government grants.

Maybe nobody tries harder for green energy than California. We see everything through a global warming prism.

Cities close street lanes to cars, so bicycles can use them. Of course it causes major traffic problems because almost no one rides bicycles. A closed lane on a street in Los Angeles produced a threat of a recall of a city councilman after a radio reporter went to the closed lane and interviewed people who took longer to get home or business owners who lost business. In the process he counted one bicycle in the closed lane.

The state wants to build a high-speed railroad from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The environmentalists argue that the train's have a lower carbon footprint than airplanes. The train has spent way past its budget and they have built only a few miles of track. And they have spent way over budget.

I heard on a radio newscast about a professor of a Claremont College who has studied the affects of California's environmental regulations and taxes. He concluded that California ranks 41st in carbon reduction among the states.

All that effort, but not much to show for it. In one interesting result, we just had a recall election that removed a state representative because he voted for a gas tax. In the fall election we will vote about whether to repeal the tax.

Biogas

We are presented with an abundant opportunity to produce energy from readily available biomass resources (food waste, manure, crop residuals and biosolids). As our population continues to grow, so does our demand for energy and our need to dispose of waste. quasar technology is a solution to this challenge.

We Need Coal to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

As NPR and CPI reported Monday, a 1969 law slashed the legal limit for exposure to coal dust to as little as 1/4 of the amount many coal miners were breathing at the time.

Thanks Obama!

I could not access the link.

It's from the quasar energy group website.

1969!!!!

That was Richard Nixon... same President who started the EPA!!!

Stupid Democrats/Liberals!!!

Thanks Obama & your damn time machine!