Begle1

Well, that's another reason to annex Mexico.
One of the wonderful things about algae is that different strands can grow in all sorts of water; brackish water, sewer water, salt water, etc. It's theoretically possible to use algae to partially purify sewage, then render it into oil. There are also strands of algae that like to eat all sorts of chemical fertilizer runoffs, and a lot of strands also work wonders at removing toxins from the bottom of the food chain.
But, as you said, the problem with algae is that it needs constant warmth, maximum sunlight and aereated water to grow efficiently. The good thing about that is our South-Western deserts are dirt cheap and are totally undeveloped. Supposedly, algae can be genetically altered to maximize yields, and the problem of aereation and fertilization can be solved while maintaining positive energy gains.
I wouldn't invest in algae production just yet, but it is the only crop that has the potential to fully replace on-highway fossil fuels. It's nice to know research is still underway.

biododge1

am i missing something? the 10% blend has been around for years.

linetrash75

Mostly in the corn belt or bad pollution areas. I have never seen 10% in OK. Local news did a story only 2 stations In OK ciy sell 10% E. Or I would use it at every fillup. The same goes for bio-diesel here in Ok I haven't heard of 1 station in the state to buy it.

Rusty I know about the btu thing gas verse E but the MPG say different. Its not just a coincidence, What gives?

Jed

biododge1

ok i thought i was going nuts or something

XLR8R

Algae sounds even better than Soylent Green.

fschiola

My daughter and I took a tour of the New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins a few weeks ago. They are working with CSU to use algae for fuel. They use the waste CO2 and waste heat from the brewing process to enhance the process. Sounds like it might work in colder climes if it could be located next to a heat source, etc.

mhuppertz

What gripes me is the Govt. has been paying farmers to NOT plant for more than 20 years now. We have plenty of capacity, and since soybean is corns rotation crop we could be producing both ethanol and biodiesel like crazy without impacting the food supply.

Begle1

If ethanol and bioDiesel were cheaper than petrofuels, we'd have a reason to produce both like crazy...

infidel

Reason we don't plant every year in the Great Plains is that it takes two years of accumulated moisture to raise a crop.

Whole idea behind paying farmers not to grow is so they don't go bankrupt and force us to depend on imports for our food supply. That could turn into a disaster if the suppling nations turn into enemies.

I agree that the ag subsidy program has been badly abused and needs to be fixed. It's just not right when a NBA basketball star making millions owns a farm and collects subsidies. The subsidy program should only apply to people who make 100% of their income from farming.

mhuppertz

So why don't the prices of crops adjust themselves so it's profitable to farm? I'm willing to give my tax money to the small famers, but what is the core issue? Is it that the corporate farmers force the small farmers out of business? Is it price supports? Brazil farms are supplying 100% of the contries motor fuel needs at less than $1 per gallon. What the heck are we doing wrong?

MJDiesel

Well put! Something needs to change.

John Faughn

A big part of the problem is giving the corpirations the rights of individual in about 1913 , now there votes are worth more than yours & mine put together .
And they have the money to buy them all .

infidel

Probably the weather. It's not like a manufacturing plant where you can say I'm going to produce 1000 units this year. Farmers are at the mercy of the weather, it can be boom or bust even if you do everything just right. American history is full of stories where whole farming areas have been depopulated after just a few bad weather years.

XLR8R

That's right, Bill; last year we spent thousands of $ to sow plugs on one of the smaller fields, then watched helplessly as the summer sun and drought burnt up the crop before our eyes... the year before the same plot yielded a bumper crop at both harvests.

ckt_santiago

The reason for less MPG is very simple; Ethanol has 50% of the heat energy that gasoline does. So some quick math and you'll see that a 5% drop in fuel economy would result from a 10% blend. As far as corn production goes; there is pleanty of potential for farmers to grow more, but with the kind of yeilds that are coming from corn I can see why bioengineers are looking for a diferent way. Also, as far as biodiesel goes, I've heard of a Sunflower hybrid that produces 60% oil when processed and has a very impressive yeild per acre.

EDIT: Oh and did I forget to mention that it is possible to produce Diesel from coal? How do you think the germans ran their war machine on 100% biofuels? The only problem I see here is the process will more than likely release a bunch of CO2 into the atmosphere. Albeit so does ethanol production, but at least that is in the carbon cycle. Whatever is released is from recently living plants and will easily be recylced by the next generation. Algea is a great idea and the desert is a good place to look to for algea production. Lots of awesome ideas for making the US independent from foreign oil. But, that is only a crutch; what we all have to realize is that the internal combustion engine is not very efficient. A well deigned engine with a proper stroke/rod length, and perfect bore/stroke combo still only uses about 20% of the energy produced by the combustion. Unfortunately we all have to think of electric motors as the true future....