Sci/Tech Biofuel breakthrough: Quick cook method turns algae into oil

[tom_mai78101]

ANN ARBOR—It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a multimillion-year process to produce crude oil. Michigan Engineering researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and transform an unprecedented 65 percent of the green slime into biocrude.

"We're trying to mimic the process in nature that forms crude oil with marine organisms," said Phil Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan.

The findings will be presented Nov. 1 at the 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.

Biofuel breakthrough: Quick cook method turns algae into oil

Michigan Engineering researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and transform an unprecedented 65 percent of the green slime into biocrude.

news.umich.edu

 

[Fatmankev]

Sounds cool, but I didn't get to see the end result I feel like. Still, if you can just take algae and make biofuel by pressurizing it for one minute, then that's a very simple and repeatable process for making your own gas. So cool.

 

[SouLEDGE]

So now we just have to balance this out with cleaning the air and we won't all be forced to
drive electric cars / use public transport.

 

[Nyph]

Bring on the algae "enslavement" posts?

 

[camelCase]

This isn't enslavement; it's genocide.

 

[Varine]

I used to know a quick cook recipe like this. But it turned Raid into... something else.

And it's no genocide, it's specicide

 

[Accname]

The idea for this method will be patented by the mineral oil companies and the manual to do it will then be buried somewhere underground so that nobody will ever do it.

 

[Varine]

Doubt it. Why would they do that, with the sudden change in how corporate ownership works recently? They could just buy it and not let anyone else do it.

 

[Fatmankev]

Anyone in here wanna explain algae to me? It sounds like it needs 4 components to make: light, water, CO2 and nutrients. When I used to grow hydroponically, sometimes my containers wouldn't be all the way light-proof and algae would start growing in there, turning root systems to shit.

So how does this happen? How can you make a plant grow without any sort of seed or something similar? What the hell is algae that it can just pop up out of nowhere from almost nothing?

 

[FireCat]

What the hell is algae that it can just pop up out of nowhere from almost nothing?

Spores in the air?

 

[Varine]

It most likely has cells it can use to reproduce in the water already.

 

[Fatmankev]

It most likely has cells it can use to reproduce in the water already.

So it's likely that the vast majority of water sources are contaminated with algae, then? Because it was tap water through a crappy filtration system, and it baffled me when this shit grew out of what seemed like nothing.

 

[Varine]

As I understand it, yes, to some extent. By no means is this an area that I'm largely familiar with, but my friend had some issues like this during his experiments with hydroponics and my sister does some minor work with it.

But that would be my guess. Algae in itself isn't really that dangerous to people, so it's not that high on the list of toxins to remove. Then it only takes some sunlight and the right PH level. And yes, it's everywhere, FireCat is, amazingly, to some extent right. They throw out spores all the over place; I'm not sure if it's in the air or not, but if there's a body of water there is algae in it.

 

[Hatebreeder]

@Fatmankev, from what I know, if you keep a certain amount of algae and place them all in a spot where you don't care whether they are there, you will prevent any other algae from appearing rapidly since they consume too much of the nutrients from the water for other algae to appear ( there was some math involved in this, like how many algae you need per cm² for this to work, but I forgot how it went ). Also, changing the acid/base values of the water can also prevent algae from speading or appearing. However, you will never be able to prevent algae population fully. Unless you keep algae-eating snails or fish in those PVC Tubes

 

[ertaboy356b]

I can see the headlines now.. "Scientist assassinated for inventing free oil solution"

 

[camelCase]

I can see the headlines now.. "Scientist assassinated for inventing free oil solution"

Sounds more like a crappy web-ad
Like, "Doctors angry with 70 old woman with simple trick to look years younger!" or something like that..

 

[Varine]

Sounds more like a crappy web-ad
Like, "Doctors angry with 70 old woman with simple trick to look years younger!" or something like that..

The one that looks like a 70 year old peeling glue off her face?

 

[camelCase]

That be the one!

 

[Varine]

Yeah doctors hate that chick.

 

[The Helper]

Here we are 10 years later and what of this???