A sustainable option overlooked? Prolific green algae that capture carbon dioxide to make biodiesel
Carbon Capture and Storage mega-project beset with problems
The UK government has invested in a £25 million Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration project led by British oil company BP as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This involves capturing carbon dioxide from the exhausts of power stations and hydrogen or oil and gas production facilities in a relatively pure form and storing it geologically underground, in porous layers of rock, depleted or near-depleted oil and gas fields, deep saline aquifers (porous rock layers containing salty water deep underground), or in coal seams that cannot be mined.
Green algae to the rescue
Isaac Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is using algae to clean up power-plant exhaust, saving greenhouse gas emissions and satisfying energy needs.
The idea occurred to him three years ago, although it is not exactly new (see later). He bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a 20 MW power plant rows of clear tubes with green algae soup inside. The algae grew happily, gobbling up 40 percent of the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and as a bonus, 86 percent of the nitrous oxide as well, resulting in a much cleaner exhaust.
The algae is harvested daily and its oil extracted to make biodiesel for transport use, leaving a green dry flake that can be further processed to ethanol, also a transport fuel (but see “Ethanol from cellulose biomass not sustainable nor environmentally benign”, this series).
Institute of Science in Society http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GAFCCAB.php
Carbon Capture and Storage mega-project beset with problems
The UK government has invested in a £25 million Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration project led by British oil company BP as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This involves capturing carbon dioxide from the exhausts of power stations and hydrogen or oil and gas production facilities in a relatively pure form and storing it geologically underground, in porous layers of rock, depleted or near-depleted oil and gas fields, deep saline aquifers (porous rock layers containing salty water deep underground), or in coal seams that cannot be mined.
Green algae to the rescue
Isaac Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is using algae to clean up power-plant exhaust, saving greenhouse gas emissions and satisfying energy needs.
The idea occurred to him three years ago, although it is not exactly new (see later). He bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a 20 MW power plant rows of clear tubes with green algae soup inside. The algae grew happily, gobbling up 40 percent of the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and as a bonus, 86 percent of the nitrous oxide as well, resulting in a much cleaner exhaust.
The algae is harvested daily and its oil extracted to make biodiesel for transport use, leaving a green dry flake that can be further processed to ethanol, also a transport fuel (but see “Ethanol from cellulose biomass not sustainable nor environmentally benign”, this series).
Institute of Science in Society http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GAFCCAB.php