Company To Develop Biofuel Made From Fish
LiveFuels, Inc. hopes to make a renewable fuel using processed algae-fed fish.
The company–who develops renewable algae-based biofuels–has a test facility in Brownsville, TX. At the location they have 45 acres of open saltwater ponds which will be used for optimizing the algal production.
Most algae-to-biofuel companies are limited to monomcultures of algae, but LiveFuels plans to grow a mix of regional species in low-cost, open-water systems. The algae will be “harvested” with filter-feeding fish and other aquatic herbivores.
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Those fish will then be processed for oil.
“Our new Brownsville facility allows us to explore a system-level solution for producing algal biofuels,” said LiveFuels CEO Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones. “By harnessing the power of natural systems, we hope to achieve what has eluded the biofuels community for decades–cost effectiveness, scalability, and sustainability.”
The company currently has 10 patents on harvesting algal biomass. Though, this might be the grossest…or tastiest depending on your perspective.
“Current approaches to generating algal-biofuels are resource intensive and face fundamental science and engineering hurdles,” said David Kingsbury, former chief program officer for the Science Program of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and chairman of the LiveFuels scientific advisory board. “LiveFuels’ approach is ingenious in its simplicity. By turning natural food chains into productive systems, LiveFuels eliminates many of the costs and risks plaguing other approaches to using algae for biofuels.”
The results of the Texas-based testing could expand to full-scale operation along the coast of Louisiana. Um, eww.
Source: SustainableBusiness.com
I’m sorry, I can’t understand the objections… I’m guessing that the fish is going to be “produce” just for harvesting the algae. If that’s the case then there are no implications for overfishing. In the “Keeping fish in crowded pens” issue, may I remind everybody how chickens are “produced”. That doesn’t mean I’m in favor of that, but there’s no practical difference. Even with cows the situation has some similarities.
“I’m sorry, I can’t understand the objections…”
If it was remotely viable to grow fish for oil this way you could instead produce cheap, high-quality food like herring, shrimp or other filter-feeding fish people like to eat.
Since my desire to eat delicious herring is in competition with your desire to burn fish oil in your car and I’m willing to outbid you by a very large margin; I’m going to get the fish and your car is not. Only one my and everyone elses desire to eat cheap, delicious fish is sated will you have any fish left over for the biofuels refiners.