New Facility Uses Algae to Turn Coal Pollution Into Fuel
A coal fired power-plant in Oregon has started a pilot project to curb pollution by using algae to harvest greenhouse gases and make fuel and other useful products.
The power plant in Boardman, Oregon, is the state’s only coal-fired facility — and also the the state’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. To deal with this problem, Portland General Electric and Columbia Energy Partners have started a pilot project to turn the otherwise nasty emissions into biodiesel, ethanol, and even livestock feed.
- » See also: Scientists Researching How Plants Can Make Petroleum
- » Get Gas 2.0 by RSS or sign up by email.
How does it work? Just like you and I breathe in oxygen to make energy, algae breathe in carbon dioxide to make energy. So, if you capture all that carbon dioxide and feed it to the algae, they grow. Algae are particularly oily little buggers so after they’ve matured they can be squeezed to make oil. The leftover algae carcasses can then be converted to ethanol and used as feed for livestock.
Right now, the project’s scale is so tiny that it’ll hardly scratch the surface of the 600-megawatt facility’s 5 million tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions. But project proponents are quick to point out that when the project goes full scale in 2½ years, it should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 60% during daylight hours and produce 20 million gallons of biodiesel per year.
Posts Related to Algae, Biodiesel, and Ethanol:
- Bill Gates invests in The Great Green Hope - Algae Fuel
- Aquaflow Strikes Oil with “Green Crude” from Algae
- Taking Algae Biofuel to the Next Level: Solazyme Gets $45 Million in Funding to Reach Commercial Scale
- Different Algae for Different Strokes
- OriginOil Develops Portable Modular Round-the-Clock Algae Biodiesel System
- Cellulosic Ethanol Primer: Let’s Call it “Celluline”
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Source: The Oregonian
“We can set up algae generators in a sunnier clime and the little buggers will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere without regards to country of national origin.”
Re-inventing the wheel, aren’t we? There is something that does this already. It’s called the Sea.
This is a great use for algae. I’ve been experimenting with it too, it’s fun and maybe someday profitable. In the meantime, running my vehicle on fuel I make myself is a wonderful thing. Saves a lot of money, takes but a little time!
And chicks dig the whole “saving the world” thing, too.
yo
algae is the way! forget corn. what a joke..algae is 2nd best except for tesla’s free energy and running on water which keeps on getting repressed. i wonder by whom?
SCREW BIG OIL! please.
get a clue
dan
Ok,
CO2 itself is not the issue. Adding CO2 to the atmospere is the issue. And this scheme will add CO2 to the atmosphere period.
Using (CH2)n as an approximation for hydrocarbons.
Burning Coal:
(CH2)n + O2 -> CO2 + H20
Algae:
CO2 + H20 + sunshine -> (CH2)n
Burning Algae product:
(CH2)n + O2 -> CO2 + H20
Under this scheme, CO2 will increase just as much as without it.
Want to grow algae? Feed them CO2 from the atmosphere! This is just a publicity ploy to make coal look better.
What kind of new Mad cow like bug will they give to our livestock this time that will bass on to us? What elese is in the emissions they aren’t telling us? What new cancers could come of this? Our livestocks do not eat Algae. I guess putting meat scraps back into the livestocks of cows food didn’t have a backlash. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.
Here is something that amazes me about all this. This very thing should have been done YEARSSSSSSSSSSS ago and other ways of handling this growing problem should have been implemented years ago as well. It is funny how now that the earths oxygen level has decreased dramatically. Now these a wipes are now going to do something about it. Amazing. How many more people have to die because of there stupidity. Yes at the current rate more will die. Gesh people wake the hell up and start educating yourself. Shakes my head at humanity. It truly has became stupid race, because sadly we refused to use our brains and learn about all things and process it all and do things differently. Amazing!!
Thanks for posting this article and reinforcing the legitimacy of my plans. One of many parts of the project is to put any exhaust from on-site diesel generators back into the water to recycle the CO2 generated.
Algae also pull metals like gold and platinum and uranium out of the water. Would be interesting to see what’s floating around in all that coal exhaust.
Blah, you kept the first one and threw out the other two.. the third one had the correct web address listed. Oh well.
Not only do algae enjoy the CO2, but regular trees and bushes and other chlorophyll bearing plants enjoy it.
So even though the plant is spewing all that “green house” gas, CO2 into the air, it gets used by plants and transformed into O2.
Using CO2 for algae production is a good idea, but the way it was before is not the nightmare that everyone thinks it is.
I’ve seen this technology showcased in a South African project over a year ago. A local publication called Biophile ran an article on this process. More at http://biophile.co.za/the-biofiles/90-biodiesel-reactors-for-south-africa