So Small So Simple and So Green
All that green stuff that clouds up your fish bowl might just be a solution to two of the world’s biggest problems. Out of control CO2 levels and rapidly declining fossil fuel supplies.
When it comes to green biofuel, it hardly gets any greener than algae. The oily goo pressed from mature algae can later be refined into clean burning biodiesel and ethanol.
Algae, like all plants, “eats” CO2 and with a little help from the sun, produces oxygen and food to nourish it’s tiny, single celled self. That you’ve probably already heard. What you probably haven’t heard is this: It has a big appetite. Under ideal conditions a colony of algae can double its volume in a matter of hours. It can consume so much CO2 in fact, that algae producers actually purchase the greenhouse gas from sources of pollution like coal plants.
One power plant’s waste is an algae producer’s treasure
Although still in it’s infancy Portland General Electric has begun a project to siphon CO2 from their power plant and into buckets of algae. Because algae can be grown in airtight containers the green house gas can stay contained long enough for the algae to absorb via photosynthesis. Instead of emitting it to the atmosphere a coal plant use it to create biofuel.
So how come we’re not all pumping green gasoline?
Producing biofuels from algae isn’t new, but it’s still relatively expensive. With rising oil prices (check the current oil price here) it’s more attractive, but biofuel production costs are currently too high to make it profitable. The race for more efficient algae production is on though, and there’s some serious venture capital being invested.
Bill Gates’ Cascades Investments LLC backing Sapphire Energy
Sapphire Energy not long ago secured an impressive amount of funding, and attention, for a biofuel start-up. They claim to have a method for producing refinery ready green crude from algae. What makes this so exciting is the fact that it’s capable of being refined with existing equipment. No new biofuel specific refinery equipment should be necessary. They even claim that their fuel can be mixed together with standard crude oil and refined as one.
They must be doing something right. They’ve managed to raise over $100 million from venture capital firms. The latest to sink their cash into Sapphire Energy is Bill Gates through Cascades Investments LLC.
According to CEO Jason Pyle the company will work toward a 10,000 barrel a day production schedule. Sapphire’s chances are better than most, their investors have committed themselves to internally finance the company right through to their production target.
