What's Jimmy Carter Got To Do With Algae Bio-Diesel?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03.27.08
"Greensters" (green oldsters) won't forget the gas station waiting lines that were routine under the US Presidential Administration of Jimmy Carter. On the plus side, the inconvenience alone led to people buying more efficient vehicles. This, in turn, had a negative feedback loop: Japan, Inc. got to eat Detroit's lunch with a dash of reliability & quality: efficiency was almost a side-dish by the time Motown car designers smelled the coffee.
Turns out, Jimmy's foresight had another plus side that, to this day, shows no sign of a negative feedback loop. Through a $25 million dollar biodiesel research program, his Administration set in motion the creation of an intellectual property bank that is a foundation of today's booming algae-based biodiesel industry. The private sector payback - although many years delayed - is likely to be significant.
Before we go on, I get a lick in. Free market Utopians are wrong. In the story that follows, algae biodiesel startup Solazyme shows us that government work creates value for the private sector. Good for climate change, national security, and adapting to skyrocketing diesel prices, too.
The $25 million Aquatic Species Program was set up in 1978 by the Carter Administration to investigate high-oil types of algae that could be grown for biodiesel. The project, run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, found algae farms producing the plants in shallow ponds could supply enough biodiesel to completely replace fossil oil for transportation and home heating.Since I'm feeling a little more political than usual (owing to the primary season), I note that it was the Clinton Administration that moved the alternative liquid fuel train onto a one-way corn-based ethanol track.
But by 1995, oil prices had settled down again and President Clinton's government was looking for budget cuts. The NREL decided to concentrate on ethanol and closed the ASP. However, its collection of more than 3,000 strains of algae is still open to researchers at the University of Hawaii and is widely regarded as the intellectual property backbone for today’s algae-to-fuel startups.Favorite tradeoff quote:
Other companies are shifting away from ponds because of the problems of water evaporation and the risk of contamination by other algae species blown in with the wind. However, if algae is grown indoors using electric light, the power used could negate the CO2 sequestered by the plants.And two wonderful money quotes:
The Vertigro Bio Reactor System has been designed to avoid both problems. Algae is grown within plastic bubbles hanging from racks in a greenhouse. [pictured]
"Once algae starts growing, light only penetrates one inch. By going vertical, we can increase the surface area and the volume that gets exposed to sunlight,” he [Michael Gilbert] says. “We also try to use every drop of water we can. There's no evaporation, we only lose what's bound up in the algae oil and the plant."
TreeHugger highly recommends the entire article, by Liz Turner, for Green Fuels Forcast. Gets our 5* rating.
Here's the TreeHugger Solazyme "see also" list of earlier posts.
Chevron Backs Solazyme to Develop Algal Biodiesel Technology ...
Solazyme B100 Algae Biodiesel Goes on the Road
Lester Brown: Time's Up, Coal
Geneticist Craig Venter Wants to Create Fuel from CO2
TreeHugger Gets Naked & Wet With William
Via::Green Fuels Forcast, "After 30 years, algae-to-fuel finally gets the green light" Image credits:: IBID & Wikipedia, Gas Station Lines During 1979 Energy Crisis
Actually, there was one study (forget source) that basically comes to the conclusion that algae based biofuels are unlikely to be cost-efficient.
More to the point, in my research of algae based fuels, one item reoccurs: Time and time again, companies and universities announces research projects into Algae based fuels---but quietly fade away without another word. The issues are big: Temperature control, light distribution, nutrient injections, co2 injections. The likelihood of building a photo bio-reactor that could pay for itself appears unlikely.
"Free market Utopians are wrong."
Wouldn't it make sense to make that claim AFTER there were some evidence to prove it right? Like a company that has actually demonstrated viable ways to mass-produce it, not just press releases?
Responding to the orginal article:
The Model T was designed to run ethanol that people could make themselves. The government then made ethanol illegal.
The diesel engine was designed to run vegetable oil that people could grow themselves. The government then put fuel taxes on vegetable oil and threw farmers in jail for tax evasion.
How much more government 'help' can we survive?
Anything that centralizes control and profit facilitates bribery and corruption. It's not just *our* big government that is corrupt. It's every big government in history.
It would do alot more for algae oil if the government were to totally stop being the enforcer for the petro oil cartel and subsidizing them with our income tax and people's lives.
We shall see as we shall see. If it does happen this could open a huge window in alternative fuels.