We reported earlier on this Dow Chemical project that will use algae to capture and recycle industrial by-product Carbon Dioxide, as would be emitted from a coal-fired power generator or, perhaps, from a coal-to-liquid conversion facility not using Sabatier technology to capture and recycle CO2 into liquid fuels, to manufacture the plastics manufacturing raw material and liquid fuel, Ethanol.
The use of algae, or other botanical agents, to recycle CO2 contrasts somewhat with the direct, industrial processes, such as the Carnol and above-noted, Nobel-winning Sabatier technologies for recycling CO2 into fuels, which we have documented for you.
Algae can produce a wider range of "products", and might offer a broader spectrum of opportunities for making good, commercial use of a valuable coal industry by-product that has, through apparent lack of awareness, so far been treated as toxic waste.
The excerpt, with comment inserted and following:
"NAPLES, Fla. — The Dow Chemical Company will partner with a Florida-based company to turn carbon dioxide -- the most prevalent greenhouse gas -- into ethanol.
Dow and Naples-based Algenol Biofuels Inc.could produce 100,000 gallons of ethanol per year for use in making plastics. The algae-based biorefinery will be built on 24 acres at Dow’s site in Freeport, Texas, where it will use carbon dioxide produced at a nearby Dow manufacturing facility."
Dow and Naples-based Algenol Biofuels Inc.could produce 100,000 gallons of ethanol per year for use in making plastics. The algae-based biorefinery will be built on 24 acres at Dow’s site in Freeport, Texas, where it will use carbon dioxide produced at a nearby Dow manufacturing facility."
(Note that this will be an installation purposely sited to ameliorate CO2 emissions from a specific industrial operation, which emits the gas as a by-product of other processes. And, note the reference to Ethanol as being a raw material from which useful plastics can be made. That would be a valuable use for Ethanol, derived from CO2, in addition to Ethanol's current, and potential, applications as a pollution-abating additive for gasoline, or as a gasoline replacement, or as a raw material from which to make gasoline, as has been demonstrated to be possible.)
"In addition to CO2, Algenol’s technology also requires salt water, sunlight and non-arable land to produce the ethanol. The company grows the algae in clear photobioreactors, where the algae secrete ethanol that can be easily captured. The process can produce 6,000 gallons of ethanol per acre of land, compared to corn-based ethanol, which produces 400 gallons per acre; Algenol’s ethanol’s carbon footprint is 80 percent smaller than that of petroleum."
(Note that, in earlier reports, we have cited references to other strains of algae which, when grown in such "photobioreactors", actually secrete "biolipids" - oils - which can be harvested simply by skimming the surface of the bioreactor's water, and then be processed into petroleum, diesel-type fuel replacements. In at least two instances we've documented, one in the US and one in New Zealand, commercial airliners have flown on jet fuel made from oils harvested from algae; algae that no-doubt consumed large amounts of Carbon Dioxide in the synthesis of that jet fuel raw material. AND, note the vast productivity differences between using purpose-grown algae, mass-produced in bioreactors at the point of CO2 emission, versus the squandering of valuable agricultural land to grow corn for Ethanol, instead of food.)
"Algenol, founded in 2006, has a similar but much larger project underway in Mexico with partner Sonora Fields S.A.P.I. de C.V., a subsidiary of Biofields. The $850 million project now in the permitting stage is a demonstration-scale project that will have the capacity to produce 1 billion gallons of ethanol per year."
The last paragraph should be of special interest to those concerned about coal plant carbon emissions. The Mexican facility could produce one Billion gallons of Ethanol, per year, from Carbon Dioxide.
That number is significant. By readily-available web-based references we will not herein cite, a gallon of Ethanol weighs a little more than six and a half pounds. Of that, a little more than half, call it three pounds, is carbon. Carbon, again according to general references, accounts for 27%, call it 30%, of the weight of CO2.
The Mexican Ethanol plant will produce one billion gallons, or, roughly, six and half billion pounds, or 3 and a quarter, say 3, Million Tons of Ethanol, which will contain three billion pounds, or 1.5 Million Tons, of Carbon that is extracted from Carbon Dioxide which would itself, in total, weigh approximately 4.5 Million Tons..
The average US coal-fueled power generating station is generally reported to generate, again roughly, 1.2 Million Tons of Carbon Dioxide, containing 360,000 Tons of Carbon, per year.
The Mexican Ethanol plant could thus, apparently, recycle the CO2 output of almost 4 average-sized, coal-fired US power generators into a truly significant quantity of the valuable liquid fuel and plastics manufacturing raw material, Ethanol.
(Note: The rough estimations above were made without the benefit of a calculator, but with the kind assistance of restaurant worker and experienced top-of-the-head tip-splitter, Ronnie Mullins, who is sheltering our humble, homeless, disabled selves in his trailer home.)
All of the above would be in addition to carbon-recycling cellulose, harvested from the cell walls of excess ethanol-producing algae, culled from bioreactors to prevent overcrowding. Cellulose, as we have documented, can be added to coal as an additional raw material for an appropriately designed and specified coal-to-liquid conversion facility.
Proper design specification, and siting coordination, of such a coal-to-liquid facility might well enable the addition of other sources of, waste, cellulose, as well - such as sawdust, sewage treatment sludge, crop residues, etc. - to the coal and algal debris being liquefied, so that even more biologically-recycled Carbon Dioxide could be converted into liquid fuels, along with coal. .
The solutions to both our national liquid fuel shortage, and to our concerns about atmospheric concentrations of Carbon Dioxide, are established. They're here. All that seems lacking is the will to start the process of resolution. And, we do know where that process starts: Coal.