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August 3, 2006
GreenFuel Technologies Corporation
I talked about this algae technology at the beginning of this year. It was on the verge of going mainstream and now appears that it has. Just a brief overview again, basically this technology uses algae on smoke stack emissions from things like power plants. The algae absorbs CO2 and NOx from the emissions, cutting both by more than half under worst conditions. The better news is that the algae grows so fast in this kind of environment that it can dried (using excess heat from the smoke stack emissions and the algae can be turned into several different kinds of biofuels. That's right today's pollution can be turned into tomorrow's fuel and the most important part is that it's cheap, cheap, cheap! Not to mention the fact that you can use the byproducts to make your ethanol or biodiesel. Basically it allows you to use the same CO2 twice plus a good portion of the waste heat, which is better than what we are doing today. And since the algae is a non-food crop it gives us another ready source of biofuels to quiet to whiners that are worried that we will not be able to grow enough food to fill our energy requirements. Of course, the sad part is this deal is happening overseas, which is probably because they can't find America companies that are interested in actually doing something that's environmentally conscious and without the adoption of something like Kyoto protocols I doubt we will see any serious effort towards it here without some sort of state related mandate. Maybe we can get more Democrats elected in Maryland and pass a law getting all the power plants around here retrofitted, that would be a great step forward.
Read more over at Green Car Congress.
Posted by Jamison at August 3, 2006 4:37 PM
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Comments
When will it be out in the US?
Posted by: Royal at August 6, 2006 9:47 AM
The shortest answer to that question is how long will it take to get the Republican party out of power in the US? The answer to the second question gives you a good guess for the start date for your question. Probably a minimum of four years. All discussions about the future of this country start from the point where the radial right is removed from power in this country.
Posted by: Jamison at August 7, 2006 4:27 PM
Actually, their technology is not yet at the commercial development stage. There are many US people and companies interested in their technology, but as it has not yet been demonstrated at a commerical scale. If the technology proves successful at the commercial scale, then you will likely see numerous project starting by the end of the decade.
Even if the technology is successful at a commerical scale, it will take a significant amount of land, potentials 1000's of acres at a major coal fired power plant. This will mean that it may not be the right technology at power plants surrounded by development as is typical on the east coast. As much promise as the technology has, it is not a silver bullet. It is however, another potential method to reduce fossil fuel use and reliance on foriegn sources of energy.
Posted by: Mike at February 20, 2007 11:27 PM
Mike, thanks for the comment. GFT did a full scale test in cooperation with the APS in December after this post was written. They've proved commercial viability end to end with their technology.
Now we can debate the individual plant layouts of all the east coast power plants if you want. But I think you'll find that the perimeter requirements for security of the plants actually provides a lot of available room to work with. We may not be able to treat 100% of all flue gases but given that it's 40% cheaper than technological solution to clean flue gases, I find it hard to believe that companies won't at least give it a try. I agree that this will be one piece of the new energy fuel source puzzle going forward. We are going to start looking at our waste products from a myriad of sources and finding a way to get more bang for our buck on them. From making animal byproducts into biodiesel, to converting bad fruit into ethanol, to using animal waste to generate electricity and new building materials. We have many sources of fuel going forward to make us energy independent in the next few decades.
Posted by: Jamison at February 21, 2007 11:31 AM