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The source for today's clean efficient energy

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BioDiesel Fuel Today

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Scientists Turn Average Algae Into Crude Oil In Less Than An Hour And Into Biofuel @ $2 a Gallon

Researchers believe they have figured out a way to make a promising biofuel that is cheap enough to compete with gasoline

*Like fossil fuel, algae fuel releases CO2 when burnt, but unlike fossil fuel, algae fuel and other biofuels only release CO2 recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the algae or plant grew, making it a clean renewable fuel.

The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (39,000 km2), which is only 0.42% of the U.S. map, or roughly the size of a small state like Maryland. 

US Invest 18 Million Into New Algae Biofuel Research and Production, July 2015 
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/07/10/18-million-algae-biofuel-blast-us-energy-department/

Inexpensive Method Of Converting Algae Into Crude Oil, Bio-fuel


By Tuan C. Nguyen  smithsonianmag.com

December 31, 2013

Out of all the clean energy options in development, it is algae-based biofuel that most closely resembles the composition of the crude oil that gets pumped out from beneath the sea bed. Much of what we know as petroleum was, after all, formed from these very microorganisms, through a natural heat-facilitated conversion that played out over the course of millions of years. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, have discovered a way to not only replicate, but speed up this "cooking" process to the point where a small mixture of algae and water can be turned into a kind of crude oil in less than an hour. Besides being readily able to be refined into burnable gases like jet fuel, gasoline or diesel, the proprietary technology also generates, as a byproduct, chemical elements and minerals that can be used to produce electricity, natural gas and even fertilizer to, perhaps, grow even more algae. It could also help usher in algae as a viable alternative; an analysis has shown that implementing this technique on a wider scale may allow companies to sell biofuel commercially for as low as two dollars a gallon.


"When it comes down to it, Americans aren't like Europeans who tend to care more about reducing their carbon footprint," says lead investigator Douglas C. Elliott, who's researched alternative fuels for 40 years. "The driving force for adopting any kind of fuel is ultimately whether it's as cheap as the gasoline we're using now."


Scientists have long been intrigued by the laundry list of inherent advantages algae boasts over other energy sources. The U.S. Department of Energy, for instance, estimates that scaling up algae fuel production to meet the country's day-to-day oil consumption would take up about 15,000 square miles of land, roughly the size of a small state like Maryland. In comparison, replacing just the supply of diesel produced with bio-diesel from soybeans would require setting aside half of the nation's land mass.

Besides the potential for much higher yields, algae fuel is still cleaner than petroleum, as the marine plants devour carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  Agriculturally, algae flourishes in a a wide range of habitats, from ocean territories to wastewater environment. It isn't hazardous like nuclear fuel, and it is biodegradable, unlike solar panels and other mechanical interventions. It also doesn't compete with food supplies and, again, is similar enough to petrol that it can be refined just the same using existing facilities.

“Ethanol from corn needs to be blended with gas and modified vegetable oil for use with diesel," says Elliott. "But what we're making here in converting algae is more of a direct route that doesn't need special handling or blending."


Or, as algae researcher Juergen Polle of Brooklyn College puts it: "We cannot fly planes with ethanol. We need oil," he tells CBS News.


But while the infrastructure for corn-based ethanol production has expanded to the extent that most cars on the road run on gasoline blends comprised of 10 percent biofuel, the ongoing development of algae fuel has progressed ever-so glacially since the initial spark of interest in the 1980s. Industry experts attribute this languishing to the lack of a feasible method for producing algae fuel running as high as 10 dollars a gallon, according to a report in the New York Times. However, the promise of oil from algae was tantalizing enough that ExxonMobil, in 2009, enlisted the expertise of world renowned bioengineer Craig Venter's Synthetic Genomics lab to fabricate a genetic strain of lipid-rich algae, as a means to offset the expense of cultivating and processing the substance into a commercially attractive resource. Yet, despite investing $600 million into a considerably ambitious endeavor, the project was beset with "technical limitations," forcing the company to concede earlier this year that algae fuel is “probably further” than 25 years away from becoming mainstream.


The hydrothermal liquefaction system that Elliott's team developed isn't anything new. In fact, scientists tinkered with the technology amid an energy crisis during the 1970s as a way to gasify various forms of biomass like wood, eventually abandoning it a decade later as the price of gasoline returned to more reasonable levels. PNNL's lab-built version is, however, "relatively newer," and designed simply to demonstrate how replacing cost-intensive practices like drying the algae before mixing in chemicals with a streamlined approach makes the entire process much more cost-effective across all phases. Elliott explains, for example, that the bulk of the expenditures are spent on raising algae, which is either grown in what’s called an open-pond system, similar to natural environments, or in well-controlled conditions found in closed-loop systems. The open-pond system isn't too expensive to run, but it tends to yield more contaminated and unusable crops while artificial settings, where algae is farmed inside clear closed containers and fed sugar, are pricey to maintain.


"People have this slightly inaccurate idea that you can grow algae anywhere just because they'll find it growing in places like their swimming pool, but harvesting fuel-grade algae on a massive scale is actually very challenging," Elliott says. “The beauty of our system is you can put in just about any kind of  algae into it, even mixed strains. You can grow as much as you can, any strain, even lower lipid types and we can turn it into crude."

Forbes energy reporter Christopher Helman has a good description of how this particular hydrothermal liquefaction technique works:


"You start with a source of algae mixed up with water. The ideal solution is 20% algae by weight. Then you send it, continuously, down a long tube that holds the algae at 660 degrees Fahrenheit and 3,000 psi for 30 minutes while stirring it. The time in this pressure cooker breaks down the algae (or other feedstock) and reforms it into oil.

Given 100 pounds of algae feedstock, the system will yield 53 pounds of 'bio-oil' according to the PNNL studies. The oil is chemically very similar to light, sweet crude, with a complex mixture of light and heavy compounds, aromatics, phenolics, heterocyclics and alkanes in the C15 to C22 range."


Operating what's essentially an extreme pressure cooker at such a constant high temperature and stress does require a fair amount of power, though Elliott points out that they've built their system with heat recovery features to maximize the heat by cycling it back into the process, which should result in a significant net energy gain overall. As a bonus, the ensuing chemical reaction leaves behind a litany of compounds, such as hydrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, which can be used to form natural gas, while leftover minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium work well as fertilizer.

"It's a way of mimicking what happens naturally over an unfathomable length of time," he adds. "We're just doing it much, much faster."


Elliott's team has licensed the technology to the Utah-based startup Genifuel Corporation, which hopes to build upon the research and eventually implement it in a larger commercialized framework. He suggests that the technology would need to be scaled to convert roughly 608 metric tons of dry algae to crude per day to be financially sustainable.

"It's a formidable challenge, to make a biofuel that is cost-competitive with established petroleum-based fuels," Genifuel president James Oyler said in a statement. "This is a huge step in the right direction."

Applying The Following Breakthrough Steps Should Finally Yield The Inexpensive Clean Energy of Biofuels potential.

Inexpensive method of growing high oil yielding algae

https://www.biodieselelectric.com/oil-rich-algae-growing

 

Low cost method of extracting high quality algae from water

Algae Extraction from water OriginOil

 

Breakthrough method of Inexpensively extracting oil from algae

http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/20947-biofuel-breakthrough-quick-cook-method-turns-algae-into-oil

*$2.28 per gallon algae biofuels?

In California, OriginOil announced a new company study indicating a potential production cost as low as $2.28/gallon ($0.60/Liter) for gasoline or diesel using a blend of algae and waste feedstocks, using the latest growth, harvesting and fuel conversion technologies from OriginOil and other innovators. OriginOil’s comprehensive model analyzes the entire algae production process at scale, integrating the latest advances in growth, harvesting and fuel conversion.


In the lowest-cost scenario, algae harvested using OriginOil’s Algae Appliance is blended with waste feedstocks and converted onsite to achieve a modeled production cost of $2.28 per gallon for gasoline or diesel. This cost roughly doubles to $5.44/gallon ($1.44/Liter) when using pure algae feedstocks. The model assumes a production footprint of at least 50 hectares (124 acres). Source 'Biofuel Digest'

**Rutgers, which is one of the largest algae research centers in the nation, is taking a different approach to making algal biofuels competitive with petroleum. Falkowski's team is working to genetically modify plant cells to create a more efficient and productive way to derive oil from the autotrophic organism.


"What I'm trying to do here is make algae make oil for us, 1 million times more efficiently -- to compete with the product that's in the ground," Falkowski said.


"Economics doesn't trump nature, nature trumps economics," Falkowski said. "We can't put carbon dioxide back into the ground faster than we can extract it. But we sure as hell can make fossil fuels go away. It's only a matter of will power, it's not a matter of know-how." CBS July 8, 2013, 5:45 AM


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Algae Oil Products Today----------------------------------------------------------------

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Anything that can be made from traditional petroleum oil can be made of sustainable Algae Oil, Here Are Some Outstanding Products

THE MOST POPULAR SHOE IN THE WORLD,
THE FLIP FLOP

Compostable/Edible Water Bottles

The Water Bottles Will Retain Their Form As Long As They Contain Water, And Will Begin To Decompose When They Are Empty.  You Can Also Eat The Bottle When You Finish Drinking It!

Edible Seaweed Water Bubbles Replace Water Bottles

ALGAE CURTAINS CLEAN THE AIR



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BioDiesel Electric Vehicles Today----------------------------------------------------------------

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New Tesla Tractor Electric Trucks Boasts A Range Of 500 Miles On A Single Charge & 400 Miles With A 30 Minute Recharge, A New Generation Of Electric Vehicle

Will the battery be durable enough to compete with the recognized efficient diesel competitors?  Time will tell.

New Pure Electric Cars Cannot Be Ignored And Are Pushing The Envelope Of Efficiency Boasting Over 250 Miles On A Single Charge
 (But With An Average Recharge Time Of Over 30 Minutes, They Still Are Not Comparable To Their Fuel Powered Rivals Yet)

Tesla Model 3, $35,000, 250 mile range on a single charge



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SuperHybrid Diesels

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New Pure Diesel Engines Efficiency Beats all Gasoline Hybrid vehicles built today, are not Your Father's Diesel (Combining these new super diesel engines with an electric engine will Create SuperHybrids, Cars that will easily approach over 200 MPG), seFirst Drive VW XL1

The current pure Diesel Technology Leader is a Car Built by VW,  The Polo, that gets 61.9 Mpg, that is better than any of the current gasoline Hybrids that averag50 MPG

The rebirth of the diesel engine Automotive technology: Electric and hybrid cars are being given a run for their money by an unlikely competitor: a range of advanced diesel engines that set new standards in performance and fuel economy, Sep 7th 2013 
Modern clean diesels trade some of their power for improved combustion. They do so by delaying the injection of the fuel until the piston begins to move back down the cylinder. The delay and the falling pressure give the fuel a chance to blend with the air better.

Even so, clean diesels still need an expensive catalytic-reduction system that injects a solution of urea into the exhaust to mop up the nitrogen oxides. They also need particulate traps to capture the soot. Going to a lower compression ratio avoids much of this. The fuel will be burned without difficulty at the cylinder’s top dead-centre, and the urea-injection system is no longer required.


With its old 1.4-litre diesel engine, the Volkswagen Polo currently holds the record for being the most frugal non-electric car in Europe, with a fuel economy on the combined cycle of just 3.8 litres/100km (equivalent to 61.9 miles per American gallon). The Toyota Prius hybrid? A lowly 20th in the league table of the most economical fuel-sippers, with 4.2 litres/100km, along with higher emissions of carbon dioxide. The 19 cars having better fuel economy than the Prius hybrid are all clean diesels.

Your columnist fully expects the new generation of clean, low-compression diesels to improve fuel-economy by a further 20% or more. That will put diesels on much the same footing—given the way that equivalent miles-per-gallon are calculated for electric vehicles—as many battery-powered vehicles, but without any worries about range or recharging. Roll on the day.


TESLA MOTORS has had great success with its Model S luxury electric car, which has out sold its petrol-powered equivalents since being launched in America last year. Even so, the prospects for battery-powered vehicles generally may never shine quite as bright again. Having had their day in the sun, they may soon be eclipsed by, wait for it, the diesel engine.

American readers will find this idea particularly hard to swallow. Surely not that dirty, noisy, smelly, lumbering lump of a motor that was hard to start in winter? Certainly not. A whole new generation of sprightly diesels—developed over the past few years—bear no resemblance to the clattering Oldsmobile 4.3-litre diesel of the late 1970s, which single-handedly destroyed diesel’s reputation in America for decades.

Technology Quarterly

Later this year Americans will get their first chance to experience what a really advanced diesel is like—and why Europeans opt for diesels over hybrids, plug-in electrics and even petrol-powered cars. The leader of the new pack is the Mazda 6, with the choice of either a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine or a 2.2-litre turbo-charged diesel. The diesel has more than 30% better fuel economy and provides oodles more pulling power. Good as the petrol version is, motorists who choose it over the diesel will miss out on a lot. And Mazda is not the only carmaker with an advanced diesel in the works. Among others, Mitsubishi Motors has been selling cars with a new generation of 1.8-litre and 2.2-litre diesel engines in Europe since 2010. Hedging its bets on hybrids, Toyota has also been testing several radically new diesel designs.


What marks this latest generation of diesel engines from even their “common-rail” predecessors of the late 1990s, let alone their belching ancestors from the 1970s, is the use of a surprisingly low compression ratio of around 14:1 rather than the more usual 16:1 or higher. The reduction in cylinder pressure may sound marginal, but it gives rise to a virtuous cycle of beneficial effects that were previously unavailable.


For a start, the lower cylinder pressure reduces thermal and mechanical stresses in the engine. As a result, the heavy cast-iron block traditionally needed to stop a diesel ripping itself apart can be replaced with a lighter aluminium casting. That trims 25kg (55lb) off the weight of the block of the new Mazda diesel. Lower cylinder pressures mean that pistons, rings, valves, crankshaft and other engine parts can also be made 25% lighter. And because they are weighed down less by the engine, the vehicle’s brakes, suspension and bodywork do not need to be quite so rugged either. All these weight savings translate into greater efficiency. According to Ricardo, an engineering consultancy, every 10% reduction in a family car’s weight boosts its fuel economy by more than 4%.


Another benefit of lower cylinder pressure is that the lighter moving parts in the engine generate less internal friction—improving efficiency still further. And having less inertia, they allow the engine to spin faster and more freely, which also boosts efficiency. Mazda’s new “Skyactiv-D” engine can reach 5,200 revolutions per minute, a figure previously unheard of among road-going diesels. All told, the improvement in engine efficiency more than compensates for any loss of power caused by reducing the diesel’s compression ratio. As it is, diesels start off by being 30-35% more efficient than petrol engines. The new low-compression diesels are likely to be even more so.


There are benefits on the emissions side as well. In a typical diesel engine, ignition is caused not by a set of spark-plugs firing sequentially, but by the heat of the air being squeezed in the cylinders. The timing of this auto-ignition is controlled by the injectors, which squirt precise amounts of fuel under extremely high pressure into each cylinder exactly as needed. For maximum efficiency, this is done just as the pistons arrive at the top of their stroke and the cylinder pressure is at its highest.


Unfortunately, the fuel and air at top dead-centre are rarely mixed as thoroughly as necessary for complete combustion. This incomplete combustion produces soot particles and smog-forming nitrogen oxides—the curse of traditional diesel engines. Modern clean diesels trade some of their power for improved combustion. They do so by delaying the injection of the fuel until the piston begins to move back down the cylinder. The delay and the falling pressure give the fuel a chance to blend with the air better. Source: http://www.economist.com/printedition/2013-09-07


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New Fuels

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New Fuel Concept Would Power A Car For 100 Years
(Cadillac powered by a laser Thorium engine)

Laser Power Systems, a U.S. company based out of  Connecticut is developing a method of automotive propulsion using the element thorium to produce electricity. The results far surpass anything currently powering automobiles.

To put it in perspective, 8 grams of Thorium produce enough power for a car to drive 1 million miles.


To put it in perspective, 8 grams of Thorium produce enough power for a car to drive 1 million miles.
Thorium is similar in structure to the element uranium. Because it is an incredibly a dense material it has the potential to produce tremendous heat, and thus energy.
Charles Stevens, the CEO of Laser Power Systems CEO, explains that just one gram of thorium yields more energy than 28,000 liters of gasoline.

Just eight grams of thorium, Stevens explains, would produce more energy than the vehicle could use in its entire life, without the need for refueling… ever.
Stevens explained in an interview with Ward’s Auto, that small pieces of thorium have been used to generate heat, being positioned to create a thorium laser in the vehicle. The laser heats water which produces steam, which in turn powers a series of “mini-turbines.”

The entire engine weighs only about 500 lbs and is light and compact enough to fit under the hood of any conventional vehicle.
Stevens and his 40 employees are now trying to answer the question of:

“How do you take the laser and put these things together efficiently?”
The question is not, however, “if” they can get it to work, but “when” they can get it efficiently produced."

"When they do, they will have a vehicle that will wear out before the engine. there is no oil, no emissions – nothing.”

Far from conceptual, this has worked in the thorium-powered 2009, Cadillac World Thorium Fuel Concept, presented by Loren Kulesus.

Aside from adjusting this innovative model’s 24 tyres every five years, Kulesus explained that nothing else would need to be added to the vehicle, including fuel for more than a century of use.

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Featured Vehicles

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Featured Vehicle:  The 260 Mpg Diesel-Electric Volkswagon XL1

The VW XL1 demonstrates the great potential for Diesel-Electric vehicles today taken to the extreme, can engineers be practical? Using the same engine design, Volkswagon could easily build (less expensive) and more practical and useful vehicles in the range of 150-200 Mpg that would easily destroy any gasoline guzzling Hybrid on the market today (Averaging around 55 Mpg, 100 Mpg for short ranges: Chevy Volt and Ford Energy).  See details about the XL1 in the following link:  First Drive VW XL1

*Honorable Mention,  Elio Motors 84 MPG, $6800,  Built in The  USA Car 

Featured Vehicle: The 260 mpg Diesel-Electric Volkwagen XL1:

http://www.plugincars.com/first-drive-volkswagen-xl1-plug-diesel-hybrid-127594.html

http://www.hybridrive.com/flash/busdemo.asp In your neighborhood, Biodiesel Electric powered Buses.

http://www.hybridrive.com/hybridrive-for-trucks.asp  Moving your stuff, Biodiesel Electric powerd Trucks.

http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/a-hybrid-that-has-no-batteries New technology for Garbage and Delivery Vehicles, Biodiesel hydraulic powered vehicles.


http://wot.motortrend.com/biodiesel-extendedrange-hybrid-suv-is-winner-of-gms-ecocar-competition-7844.html#ixzz0pd93m4kl  BioDiesel Electric SUV car winner of 118 MPG GM Challenge


http://www.ecofriend.com/zero-south-makes-hummer-h1-worthy-for-the-poles-with-a-hybrid-engine-and-tracks.html  Biodiesel Electric powered South Pole Hummer

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