UK Starts World’s Largest Algae Biofuel Initiative
Great Britain hopes that algae-based biofuels can reduce automotive and aviation emissions by 2030, and cut overall emissions by 80% by 2050.
While food-based biofuels are taking the heat for rising food prices, other solutions - like algae - are gaining a more serious following. For example, the UK’s Carbon Trust has announced plans for a project to make algae bio-fuels a commercial reality by the year 2020
But the situation is much more than some “food vs fuel” finger pointing. The fact that transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions is major driving factor - pun intended: it’s also the fastest growing cause of carbon emissions in the UK. If the government’s target to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050 is to be met, then initiatives like this are crucial.
- » See also: Scientists Researching How Plants Can Make Petroleum
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The UK isn’t the first country to try such a monumental undertaking. There have been major efforts in the past to develop algal biofuels on a commerical scale. Multilmillion-dollar projects funded by the US government during the 1980s found high biomass yields were definitely possible. The research fizzled out when no one found a way to make the product commercially competitive with the low petro prices for that era. One word - FAIL!
Large scale programs were also tried in Japan, but also to no avail.
The Carbon Trust forecasts that algae-based biofuels could replace more than 70 billion litres of oil every year. They hope to have the initiative in full effect by 2030. In carbon terms, this equates to an annual savings of more than 160m tonnes of CO2 globally!
The first stages of the project include investing in British companies involved in promising algae research.
“You can make algae with a very high oil content and you can make algae that grows very quickly and, at the moment, no one can do both,” said Robert Trezona, R&D director at the Carbon Trust.
It will take a multitude of approaches to fully realize the potential of algae. “There are many more different algae species than there are higher plant species so each algae will require specific effort. Each one will have its own peculiar requirements to figure out how to make them productive, how to get the right strains, how to harvest and process them. We cannot just depend on one or two companies.”
The second phase of the project starts around a year later and involves scaling up the algae-growing operation. The Carbon Trust will build multi-hectare open ponds to act as laboratories for the most promising algae technologies identified from the previous stage. Due to the UK’s gloomy weather, these will most likely be built abroad. This phase of the project could see the Carbon Trust, and interested partners from industry, investing up to £20m.
“If you I’ve got 12 months a year of warmth and sunshine, your algae farm just produces much more biomass. In a world where costs will be important, UK algae farms would have a real problem,” said Trezona.
Mark Williamson, innovations director at the Carbon Trust, said: “We must find a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to oil for our cars and planes if we are to deliver the deep cuts in carbon emissions necessary to tackle climate change. Algae could provide a significant part of the answer and represents a multibillion-pound opportunity.”
So no need to burn your autos just yet, folks. Well…unless of course McCain wins. I don’t think even algae can save us from Sarah Palin’s energy expertise.
Image source: Jef Poskanzer on Flickr
Again, my apologies for allowing myself to over-react to an assine and irrelevent political jab. I should ignore small-minded partisanship, but in this case it was a turd in a punch bowl. Totally unnecessary and distracting from the meat of the article.
Yes, this is a positive development for the state of the worlds fuel resources, regardless of where it comes from.
Europe has a much different fuel/energy problem than we do, and their resources are somewhat limited. Due to the nature of the governmental systems in the E.U., their respective governments will necessarily be more involve than ours needs to be. At least I hope so.
So their solutions may not necessarily translate for us. But this does seem to be one that just might, if the private sector here takes it on.
Our own government lost money running The Mustang Ranch, outside Las Vegas, when they took it over due to taxes. In other words, our elected idiots can’t even make money selling booze and whores!
Re: Jlk
Hey, thank you for pointing out the other 500 words in the article.
And now for something completely different…(you Monty Python fans will get that)
Since this thread is under the “biofuel business” tab, how ’bout this:
On a trip to the Dominican Republic, last year, it occurred to me that the island has huge potential to be a source of renewable ethanol feedstock, if not ethanol itself. I toured a sugar cane plantation and saw thousands of acres of sugar cane. I also saw thousands of unplanted acreage.
I wonder if a group of insightful investors and businessmen could possibly negotiate something with their government to, at first, export raw feedstock to our ethanol plants, and then later develop their own plants on the island?
Surely I’m not the first to think of this, but I sure wish I had the resources and contacts to make it happen.
Of course, I’d most likely have to get past our own governmental roadblocks and tariffs, but the result could be that the D.R. gains more wealth and creates more jobs, which may in turn help alieviate their neighbor, Haiti’s chronic unemployment and abject poverty, resulting in less drain on the U.N.’s Humanitarian Aid budget (of which the U.S. is the largest contributor), allowing them to play feelgood “Bluehat” cop in more third world nations.
Another net result would be to pacify the “no food for fuel” crowd, by not using their precious corn. Then they could feel good about feeding the starving Ethernopians. (A Southpark reference)
BTW - Dominican cigars are much better than the leftover Cuban stock, as well as being legal and cheaper. But that’s another story.
I liked the article til the end. Which ruined any point he might have made, and just left me disappointed. I would like to thank you on behalf of our country for showing the world that your political interests are the basis of your articles, not facts or information.
The free world will be happy to know that an American tinkerer found a way to inject H2 into turboed bio-diesels and get amazing power increases, and lower pollution numbers. Right now, he is producing SUV conversions, and surely the Chinese or German companies will take note and use this technology to their sales advantage! Just think, a use for H2 from the sun AND a use for Bio-diesel fuels! Not so for “The Big Three” they are too busy suckling at Uncle Sams tit to look up and take notice! When the devaluation of the dollar due to the Bush money printing spree is combined with the OPEC blackmail for more money and the spectre of less oil in the wells, and cash, in Euros, on the barrel head is demanded for oil, we may be more inclined to change our attitudes. For the time being, cheap gas in the stated is saying,”Get out your SUV’s, it was only a scare” Watch out America, the (GRD) great republican depression is about to eat you on the half-shell, no salt, no pepper, just a gulp!