Algae -A Solution to Peak Oil? Virgin Airlines Says "Yes," Others Say "No"

"All countries must take vigorous, immediate and collective action to curb runaway energy demand. The next ten years will be crucial for all countries... We need to act now to bring about a radical shift in investment in favor of cleaner, more efficient and more secure energy technologies."

~Nobuo Tanaka, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA)

Big oil had better start worrying. Common algae from ponds and waste-water treatment plants has been found to produce vast amounts of burnable oil, say researchers at the University of Minnesota,  algae produces an astounding 5,000 gallons of oil per acre. Corn, by comparison, produces a measly 18 gallons. Soybean yields 48 gallons. An acre of palm trees yields 635 gallons.

Algae has a clear advantage in other ways as well. Land crops use up more resources and require more manpower to grow. Algae, on the other hand, is so hardy that it grows all by itself in conditions that require little to no management.Researchers Roger Ruan and Paul Chen will start with 200 gallons of waste water, but see the potential as enormous. The only liability they have to deal with now is how to produce the fuel cheaply. They believe it will be able to be made affordable as the technology improves and starts to catch on.

Exxon claims “We're not gouging US citizens,” after raking in a record-setting quarterly profit of $11.7 billion, the largest ever profit in the history of the US. 

As society gets increasingly fed up with big oil, opportunities for new energy sources are opening up.The algae production process can also take advantage of excess heat, nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus produced by coal-burning plants and waste-water incinerators, making algae pond farms a possibility for both northern and southern states.

Virgin Atlantic has become the first airline to fly with biofuel, something airline boss Richard Branson calls "a vital breakthrough" but environmentalists have derided as a "nonsensical" publicity stunt.

Earlier this year,  the Boeing 747-400 flew from London to Amsterdam, carrying in one of its four fuel tanks a 20-percent mix of biofuel derived from coconut and babassu oil. That may not sound like much, but it is the first time a commercial aircraft has flown any distance using renewable energy. Branson said the "historic" flight marks the first step toward reducing the airline industry's carbon footprint.

Pete Hardstaf, head of policy for the World Development Movement, said, "This is nothing more than a Virgin publicity stunt with dangerous consequences for the planet." Doug Parr, chief scientist for Greenpeace, told the Globe and Mail the flight is "high-altitude greenwash."

Virgin's critics offered the standard arguments against biofuels -- mainly, the environmental benefits of biofuels are negligible at best and using crops for fuel will drive up food costs, deplete arable land and contribute to deforestation.

But beyond that, the critics said any gains made through biofuels would be offset by one year's growth in the number of flights. Airline passenger growth rates are expected to rise 6 percent annually through 2009 and double by 2020. Aircraft emissions are expected to double by 2030. "The concept of using biofuels and continuing the rate of expansion in the aviation industry is nonsensical," Hardstaff said.

In stark contrast, Jon Dee, founder of Planet Ark, praised Virgin and Boeing for the effort, telling ABC Online, "I actually think it is good to show that you can fly major airliners on alternative fuels. I think that it is vital that as quickly as possible we move away from business as normal. But what we should be looking at, I think, is how we get that biofuel derived from algae. That is the best way to go when it comes to biofuel."

Branson and Boeing agree, which is why, with Virgin's fuel bill increasing by $2 billion in '08 due to rising oil prices, they're spending a lot of time and money investigating algal fuels. Billy Glover, Boeing's head of environmental strategy, says "algae looks very promising." Branson says Virgin used coconut and babassu oil for the test, "but commercial fuel will almost certainly be derived from algae."

Posted by Rebecca Sato with Casey Kazan.

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Source Links:

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/02/virgin-atlantic.html
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/11/26/72164691
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Business/2008/01/15/algae_has_potential_as_a_source_o

Comments

[R. J.]

It's already being done on a small scale. We've got to do something to replace the disappearing dinosaur juice. It may not be the only alternative but it's one that makes sense. Use waste material to produce fuel and maybe clean up the environment a bit.

[John]

How quickly this article deteriorated into a piece about Virgin Airlines????

[pinay sexy]

wow i need to go there!

[mackenzie]

can someone elxplain why environmentalists think airplanes switching to biofuel is a bad idea? isn't any step in that direction a good step?

[hejtmanek]

because in their perfectly green world, there are no airplanes in the sky at all

[???_???]

5000 gallons of oil - so thats about 1200 Barrels of oil - but 5000 gallons of oil per acre per what? Month? Year?

[JC Ferrell]

Why when record oil company profits are mentioned are the record tax payments not mentioned?

[Kim]

Thank you Virgin Atlantic for taking a stand and at least trying!!!

[Charlie]

This algae stuff look promising, but I have strong doubts in energy efficiency of this stuff. If you want to grow algae in the sea you need to deal with enormous fuel consumption to harvest them. This will decrease the efficiency greatly.

Production on land is not an option, for a sustainable solution we need to look into products that do not compete with food for space. Land seems available now, with growing population this will be needed for food. Using solar energy directly and limiting energy consumption will prove to be essential. Flying is not an element of a sustainable lifestyle. I wonder how long we will be able to do so.

[Sam]

Even assuming that is yearly production you're looking at about 99,070 square miles to entirely replace the present oil demand (based on figures here: http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html ).

Now that sounds like a lot of space and it is but percentage-wise that totals up to about 2.6 percent of US land mass, or about 5% of present agricultural use (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB14/ ).

I'm not sure what percentage of the "waters of the United States" we're talking there, but especially considering that it wouldn't be the only technology used algae-based biofuel seems very promising. Just make it biodiesel please..ethanol is still junk.

[erichansa]

Every time when the sun shines on my koi poind, I get algae. Now I can't see my fish! :(

[SolReka]

And what about the trash vortex?; all the plastic and debris gathers and floats aimlessly on the sea's surface. This has major implications on the production of algae in the oceans.

We are killing our planet people, and nothing is being done about it.

Money really is the root of all evil.

Regards
SolReka
Brighter Energy Solutions

[Tim]

I am pretty excited about algae potential. I like electric automobiles as perhaps the best form of general automobile running on a renewable resource, but obviously some sectors of the transportation industry will still require combustible fuel. If this proves true, I think ethanol from algae is the way to go. All the other biomass candidates involve sever ecological impacts in their cultivation (see The Great Biofuel Hoax of 2008: http://www.brightfuture.us/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&Itemid=71).

[ROBERT WIENER]

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