As we've suggested to be possible and feasible, flue gasses can be harnessed to help cultivate aquatic crops; in this case, seaweed.
It's not exactly algae for additional liquid fuel production, as we've documented to be feasible and practical, but the principle's the same, and various seaweeds do have various uses where they're available, including as a beneficial livestock feed component, if nothing else. "Red Seaweed" presumably has some value above and beyond the one that interests us most in this Israeli demonstration, i.e., the source-point fixation of Carbon Dioxide from a coal-powered utility.
Comment follows the excerpt:
Alvaro Israel, Jonah Gavrieli, Anat Glazer and Michael Friedlander
IMI (TAMI), Institute for Research and Development, Ltd., P.O. Box 10140, Haifa Bay 26111, Israel
Israel Electric Company, Ltd., Haifa, Israel
Abstract
Flue gases containing 12–15% CO2, mixed with warm seawater disposed by a power plant, were used to cultivate Gracilaria cornea (Rhodophyta) in 1000 L or 40 L tanks at pH 8.0. During the 13-month study, growth rates were similar to those where commercial CO2 was used (94.1% vs. 91.3% biomass increments per week), with additions of NH4 and PO4 having significant enhancing effects on algal growth. Concentrations of chemical components, including heavy metals, measured in the seawater medium were within the range of those found in the tissue and agar of G. cornea, meeting international standards for marine pollutants. In average, the agar content and agar strength were similar for the different treatments, as were the levels of carbohydrates and total soluble proteins. These results show that flue gas and warm seawater can be used for intensive long-term seaweed tank cultivation presumably at reduced production costs as compared with commercial CO2."
We find the concluding sentence, especially, to be intriguing. The overall implication of this is, apparently, that in seaweed farms not intimately connected to a coal-utilization plant, they actually buy Carbon Dioxide, at some expense, and truck or pipe it in to nourish the crop. And, the coal-plant flue gas works, it seems, even a little better than commercial CO2.
One way, or the other, we can, and should, recover and recycle the Carbon Dioxide emitted from our coal utilization processes. We don't have to be held hostage to punitive Cap & Trade taxes, nor do we have to suffer wealth-draining dependence on foreign powers for our liquid fuel needs.