Algae Fuel Coast To Coast Run - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

Matt Herring · 09-02-2009, 01:30 AM

Interesting west coast to east coast run for this company's "algae" fueled vehicle. Not all algae fueled though...plug in electric, hybrid, gas, algae combo...looks like they are using a Prius as the dummy car.

Claiming 150 mpg...not sure how they calculate that number using all the forms of fuel they have in the car.

150 MPG “Algaeus” Plug-In Prius To Cruise Coast-to-Coast On Algae Fuel : Gas 2.0

Has anyone here heard of or been following this company? If you're in one of the 10 cities it's visiting it might be an interesting thing to check out.

Christ · 09-02-2009, 01:38 AM

I don't know about the company, but it's been made clear by other companies that algae doesn't currently have the capacity to create enough fuel per area to even offset gas usage in this country... it would have to be grown in towers which maximized surface area, and genetically engineered to create something like 80% of it's own body weight in oil (as food storage).

Those figures were used for creating bio-diesel from Algae, though. Someone is working on the surface maximized tower thing, as well... can't think of the name, but it was on "Brink".

dcb · 09-02-2009, 09:40 AM

not sure what companies you are referring to. Are you expecting a single source solution to energy problems?

Christ · 09-02-2009, 04:34 PM

No, I'm not expecting a single source solution, but the solution won't come from growing crops for fuel. There isn't enough surface area for the farms necessary to do so without starving the country as well, which is the reason they've begun researching algae in the first place. Several types of algae produce (per weight) much more oil than other vegetables do, when forced to store food supply for themselves.

The biggest part of research is finding a way to grow the algae on more than flat-ground surface area, as again, there just isn't enough area to "go around"; Hence the reason for "algae towers". Once again - watch that episode of "Brink" on Discovery. You'll get what I'm saying.

dcb · 09-02-2009, 04:47 PM

I don't pay for TV. Digital broadcast is plenty for my purposes.

Christ · 09-02-2009, 04:48 PM

I think you can get the episode on hulu or discovery.com too.

dcb · 09-02-2009, 05:04 PM

yah, not hunting for something some company, with who knows what agenda, might have said in the middle of some video.

Thing is, algae needs water and not land. so not sure the comment even makes sense.

rmay635703 · 09-02-2009, 05:18 PM

Several oil companies holding company shells own rights to methods of rapid growing algae from coal fired exhaust flumes.

I think there is a fair amount of potential on that regard since there is an AWEFULL lot of dead space around power plants and the polution reductions are real.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christ

I don't know about the company, but it's been made clear by other companies that algae doesn't currently have the capacity to create enough fuel per area to even offset gas usage in this country... it would have to be grown in towers which maximized surface area, and genetically engineered to create something like 80% of it's own body weight in oil (as food storage).

Those figures were used for creating bio-diesel from Algae, though. Someone is working on the surface maximized tower thing, as well... can't think of the name, but it was on "Brink".

Christ · 09-02-2009, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcb

yah, not hunting for something some company, with who knows what agenda, might have said in the middle of some video.

Thing is, algae needs water and not land. so not sure the comment even makes sense.

I'm well aware that algae needs water... the point was that there isn't enough surface area of the water (because it needs light, too, right?!) to grow enough algae to completely offset oil production for diesel or gasoline.

Yes, that includes using all available bodies of water in the US, and US-accessible bodies. Trouble is, without a controlled growth method, there are other ecological side-effects to look after as well...

Sure, we could cover the entire ocean in algal growth, but then what happens to the creatures beneath the surface that need light?

The towers that are being researched are just water tubes that flow through a filter which filters algae that have grown to a certain size, and only when flow through the filter is opened. In this way, algae can be grown/sustained in water filled tubes that extend hundreds of feet into the air, rather than spreading that same amount of algae over hundreds of square feet of water.

Jeez, way to over-analyze a comment.