Fuel from seaweed?

[h20man]

An interesting premise...

Bio Architecture Lab is claiming to have a pilot plant that now converts sugars in seaweed to into isobutanol.

They have been published up in science.

They claim a conversion of 80% of the maximum theoretical yield from the sugar composition in macro algae (seaweed).

....snip....
January 19, 2012, Berkeley, Calif. – A team of scientists from Bio Architecture Lab (BAL), has developed breakthrough technology that helps to further enable the wide-scale use of seaweed (macroalgae) as a feedstock for advanced biofuels and renewable chemical production. The team engineered a microbe to extract the sugars in seaweed and convert them into renewable fuels and chemicals, thus making seaweed a real renewable biomass contender.
....snip...

The thinking is that this is good, as it does not waste land for growing fuel crop... hopefully no one starts raping the ocean and ripping out all the seaweed.

But Seaweed is fast growing, and ideally can be harvested/grown with minimal impact.

[kd3pc]

very big difference in doing this in a lab, and bringing it to "market"....it has been proven time and time again that what may work on one level, fails miserably on the grander scale.

I still don't think we have broken the immutable law of physics....that one about conservation of energy...you can't create or destroy, you may move it or release it or change it...

cold fusion is another one...

maybe this will pan out,

[h20man]

The premise of this is not about 'creating' energy. It is in creating a microbe that eats seaweed, and excretes alcohol. Rearranging one set of molecules to another, using the suns's power.

Similar to Photosynthesis (ferns are probably most efficient) that takes in CO2 and water (H2O) and breaks it down into sugars and oxygen...



It uses the energy of the Sun to do the chemical transformation....

So. No violation of any of the currently known physics laws....

Still this is not an solution for diesel engines....

[kd3pc]

Originally Posted by h20man

The premise of this is not about 'creating' energy. It is in creating a microbe that eats seaweed, and excretes alcohol. Rearranging one set of molecules to another, using the suns's power.

Similar to Photosynthesis (ferns are probably most efficient) that takes in CO2 and water (H2O) and breaks it down into sugars and oxygen...



It uses the energy of the Sun to do the chemical transformation....

So. No violation of any of the currently known physics laws....

Still this is not an solution for diesel engines....

if it can do this....then you have just solved the worlds problem

CO2 + Water and some light = Oxygen and a puddle of alcohol


were it that simple.

[sawingknots]

believe it or not! on some of the smaller islands in the philippines one of the important local industries is farming seaweed,they tie pieces of live seaweed to long strips of plastic then submerge them in an area near the island, i'm not sure how long it takes but eventually its harvested,i'm told that the seaweed is exported to china [surprize] where its main use is made into beach shoes [flipflops] but also food products, i have a pic somewhere of a group of women busily preparing it to be planted

[hellosailor]

There are lots of exciting biofuel projects out there. And lots of exciting claims whose purpose is actually to skin investors, caveat emptor.

What happens if the microbe that converts seaweed into alcohol gets loose in the ocean? We sail on Chardonnay and no one under the age of 21 is allowed to drink the water? :-)

[sawingknots]

because the philippines has been largely denuded of regular trees lots of the population cook on fires made from coconut hulls,fromes and dried seaweed