Boyd,
It is a common misconception that we are talking about depleting the algae that is currently in the world.
Most wild algae strains are almost worthless as fuel - they contain so little oil that there is no point in extracting the oil. There are only about 20 species that produce significant oil and you have to give them just the right conditions - which doesn't happen in the wild. (It has been estimated that there are over 300,000 species of algae - so the chance of finding one of the 20 in the wild is very slim.)
Growing and harvesting algae would involve creating special ponds for them, selecting a likely species, getting a small pure sample, growing that sample up to a big enough population to fill your ponds, and then harvesting your pond.
(Reality note - it will be much more difficult than that summary sounds like.)
The natural population of algae will not be altered. So even if harvesting algae was going to somehow affect the ecology, we are not going to harvest the natural population.
Bobby
Jim, because we don't want our fill up stations to look like the local pharmacy. By the way, what is using algae for fuel going to do to the ecological balance of our planet?Boyd
From: n61cm <jim@tazwade.com>
To: diesel_mercedes@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 7:50 AM
Subject: [diesel_mercedes] Re: Alternate Diesel Fuels
A few years ago I volunteered to be a judge in the local high school's science fair. One of the kids had harvested two types of algae from local ponds (which he called "green" and "brown" algae), extracted the oil from them, and burned it to determine which algae had more energy. Every now and then a kid comes along who renews my faith in the future.
On a related note, why are we always looking for the one single thing to replace oil? It's probably better to replace it with a bunch of things, not just one.
Jim--- In mailto:diesel_mercedes%40yahoogroups.com, Bobby Yates Emory <liberty1@...> wrote:
>
> Tom,
>
> Thanks for the opening for a plug.
>
> There are a few thousand of us who are trying to develop ways to grow algae
> and extract oil.
>
> We are now making small progress toward an open source solution, but have
> not cost the taxpayers millions.
>
> Some of the algae are called cyanobacteria. I am not a microbiologist so I
> don't know whether they are bacteria or not.
>
> Everyone is invited to join us here:
>
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oil_from_algae/join>
>
>
> Bobby
>
>
--
Toward freedom,
Bobby Yates Emory
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