DailyDirt: Geoengineering Could Have Its Own Unintended Consequences

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

If you haven't noticed, there's a climate change conference going on that could have an impact on global commerce and... possibly the global climate, if you believe we puny humans can actually change the climate. Even if you don't think climate change is a real problem, it shouldn't hurt to explore more energy technologies or environmental remediation techniques, right? (Well, unless we get ourselves into a Snowpiercer situation.)

• Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg (and others who aren't famous billionaires) are trying to get "large funding commitments for basic and applied research" for energy technology. Maybe $20 billion invested in research over the next few years will help get everyone away from burning fossil fuels -- or at least make fossil fuels less polluting? [url]
• A geoengineering solution that comes up every so often is to create a "fake volcano" and spray sulfuric acid into the upper atmosphere. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, it caused a global temperature dip by ejecting aerosol droplets that reflected sunlight -- so an artificial aerosol spray could perform the same trick for a relatively low cost (assuming we actually wanted to do it). [url]
• Russ George dumped about 100 tons of iron sulfate into the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Canada in 2012 -- seeding the ocean with this fertilizer that spawned a huge artificial plankton bloom. George wasn't commended for his experiment, but did it work? Mostly likely it did, though it might also depend on how you define success. But should anyone do it again? [url]
• Phytoplankton could evolve to sequester carbon dioxide, absorbing as much CO2 as tropical rainforests do. Or someone could artificially engineer these microscopic organisms to convert CO2 into biomass, but it's still unclear what effect it might have on the carbon cycle. [url]

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Filed Under: bill gates, biomass, carbon cycle, carbon dioxide, clean energy, climate change, co2, energy, geoengineering, iron sulfate, mark zuckerberg, mount pinatubo, phytoplankton, russ george

DailyDirt: Blooming Business For Algae

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Growing fuel from algae is a goal that plenty of scientists have been working on for years. Creating an economically viable process for doing this would be a real game-changer, but so far, there are still some major challenges (and the price of oil is looking remarkably low nowadays, too). Still, progress for growing biofuels from algae is inching along, and here are just a few examples.

• One of the problems for using algae to produce biofuels is that these organisms normally produce lipid oils when they are starved for nutrients -- but they don't grow well under those conditions. However, engineering some diatoms to produce lipids without hindering their growth has been achieved. [url]
• An algae pilot plant in Alabama is making diesel and jet fuel -- and treating waste water at the same time. Algae Systems puts waste water, algae and CO2 into large plastic bags and lets the algae grow for a few days offshore in the sun. This process currently produces 3,000 gallons of fuel per acre per year and treats 40,000 gallons of water per acre per year, so it still needs to scale up before everyone is driving/flying around using this biofuel. [url]
• An algae-powered building in Hamburg relies on heat from growing algae to make the building (somewhat) self sufficient. This BIQ building sucks carbon dioxide out of the air, creating biomass, and uses traditional solar panels to augment its power needs. The upfront building costs are significant, but if it can continue to operate with minimal ongoing energy costs, the investment will pan out in the future. [url]

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Filed Under: algae, alternative energy, biodiesel, biofuel, biomass, energy, gmo, solar, sustainable, waste water
Companies: algae systems

DailyDirt: Growing Biofuels For Sustainable Energy

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Biology has already figured out how to capture and use solar energy, so it makes some sense that we could try to re-purpose natural mechanisms to do our bidding and fulfill our energy needs. The trick is doing it on a scale that works economically. Plenty of scientists are working on ways to produce biofuels, but so far, the amount of biofuel used commercially is a rounding error compared to the volume of petroleum products that is burned. Still, here are just a few examples of biofuels that could be promising alternatives to burning dinosaur remains.

• Genetically modified versions of Escherichia coli (E. coli) have produced small amounts of gasoline in a lab -- which could potentially be scaled up to 'grow' a practical biofuel that doesn't require significant changes to our existing petroleum-powered economy. Bacteria have produced biodiesel before, but this is the first time a 'biogasoline' has been grown. [url]
• Cellulosic ethanol is either a boondoggle or the next big biofuel. The US converts about 40% of its corn crop into alcohol fuel, and some say it's time to end the subsidies that support this semi-established biofuel. [url]
• Plant waste could be fermented to produce a gasoline-like fuel, too. A pilot plant for scaling up this process is a couple years away still, but this is another way we could keep our gas-guzzling cars and use more environmentally friendly fuels at the pump. [url]
• Biofuels are usually promoted with the benefit of being carbon neutral, but the technology to turn biomass into energy can be carbon negative, too. Gasification heats up biomass like corn husk waste in a low oxygen environment to create combustible hydrogen and carbon-rich charcoal. [url]

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Filed Under: biodiesel, biofuel, biogasoline, biomass, biotech, carbon negative, carbon neutral, cellulosic ethanol, energy, gmo, hydrogen, petroleum

DailyDirt: Better Biofuels To Save The Day

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Weaning ourselves off of a hydrocarbon-powered economy is not going to be easy. The infrastructure to distribute and use petroleum distillates is ubiquitous, so biofuels that can easily use the same equipment could be a convenient way to start replacing fossil fuels. Using more and more biofuels sounds like an easy solution, but the real trick is scaling up the processes in an economical way. Here are just a few biofuel projects that might be worth keeping an eye on.

• Companies making biofuels from plant waste -- avoiding corn as a feedstock -- are starting to ramp up production, with capacities to make millions of gallons of cellulosic ethanol in a year. A few million gallons of alcohol isn't that much compared to the hundred of billions (with a b) of gallons of petroleum distillates that the US uses as fuel, but these biofuel technologies could become price competitive with corn-based ethanol in a few years. [url]
• Enzymes from the wood-eating gribble could help turn cellulosic waste into biofuels. Not to be confused with the furry creatures hated by Klingons, the gribble produces this robust catalyst that breaks down a variety of polysaccharides into simple sugars -- potentially creating a key step in a process that would make sustainable liquid biofuels. [url]
• A genetically modified strain of Pyrococcus furiosus might be useful for converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into chemicals and fuels. This microorganism usually lives near geothermal vents in ocean water, but an engineered colony of P furiosus could live in less extreme conditions and be fed a diet of hydrogen and carbon dioxide in order to skip the somewhat inefficient use of plant biomass to produce biofuels. [url]

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Filed Under: biofuel, biomass, carbon dioxide, carbon fixation, cellulose, energy, enzymes, ethanol, fuel, gribble, oil, petroleum, pyrococcus furiosus, sugar