Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #6685301
The document we make introductory report of in this dispatch is, we are convinced, an important one; and, we are thus enclosing multiple links to it.
Furthermore, there are many details enclosed within the document that have direct bearing on, and implications for, the productive recycling of Carbon Dioxide in United States Coal Country, including, and in some cases especially, as we will illustrate in coming dispatches, West Virginia.
For those reasons, the report we make herein will actually be quite abbreviated, relative our source document's content.
Our intent is, to, once this report is published by the West Virginia Coal Association, make direct reference to that document, and illuminate more of it's specific information, in separate reports based upon it.
First, please recall our recent post, now accessible on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site via:
USDOE Algae Recycle CO2 into Liquid Fuels | Research & Development; concerning: "Liquid Fuels from Microalgae; 1987; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO; USDOE; Abstract: The goal of the DOE/SERI Aquatic Species Program is to develop the technology to produce gasoline and diesel fuels from microalgae."
In that report, the authors referenced an earlier "technical and economic analysis" on the same topic, i.e., producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels from Algae nourished with Carbon Dioxide, as in the passage:
"'Fuels from Microalgae', demonstrates that liquid fuels can be produced from mass-cultured microalgae at prices that will be competitive with those of conventional fuels by the year 2010."
That is the report we bring you herein.
And, as you will see, the authors' prediction, a quarter of a century ago, "that liquid fuels ... produced from mass-cultured" Algae fed with industrial effluent Carbon Dioxide might "be competitive with those of conventional fuels by the year 2010", was, in fact, woefully pessimistic.
The authors completely underestimated the avarice of OPEC and Big Oil, and perhaps overestimated the strength of Uncle Sam's spine in standing up to those bandits.
As evidence, we submit some advance excerpts, demonstrating the premise upon which, 25 years ago, our US Department of Energy experts we cite herein based their economic analysis of Gasoline fuel derived from CO2-recycling Algae.
From Page 83, Table 4-3. 'Estimated Year 2010 Fuel Cost', we learn that our USDOE projects that both Gasoline and Diesel fuels can be made from Carbon Dioxide-nurtured Algae at a cost of $1.75 per gallon.
However, the authors hedge a bit and further explain, on page 140, that:
"Based on the achievement of these (specified) research goals, liquid fuels that are potential direct substitutes for conventional hydrocarbon fuels can be produced from microalgae for $1.60-$2.00/gallon."
And, though in places expressing some disappointment at their cost estimates, the authors go on to offer the hope that processing improvements, in the making of CO2-based gasoline via the culture of Algae, would make any apparent losses grow smaller.
Well, there are two things about that:
If you haven't gotten out of the house for awhile, the total national average price at the pump, just yesterday, in 2011, across the nation and for all grades of Gasoline, and Diesel, according to the American Automobile Association, as via:
Daily Fuel Gauge Report--national, state and local average prices for gasoline, diesel and E-85.;
was $4.265 per gallon, on a nation-wide basis. We do note, to avoid seeming inaccuracy, that, in our area locally, prices seem to have been somewhat lower, around $3.75 per gallon.
The USDOE herein was referencing, in 1986, against a Gasoline price that, according to:
1980s Flashback-Economy / Prices;
averaged $0.93 per gallon.
Moreover, our USDOE projected, in 1986, that, whoever used Algae to convert Carbon Dioxide into Gasoline would actually have to buy that Carbon Dioxide.
So, they calculated a price for CO2, and included that cost for CO2 in their calculations. It amounts, as we will illustrate in coming reports concerning this research, to about 30% of the cost of making "conventional hydrocarbon fuels ... from microalgae", a cost that is actually half of what we are paying at the pump right now for those "conventional hydrocarbon fuels".
And, as one source for the purchase of the needed CO2, they - quite seriously - suggest that it be bought from petroleum companies in the Permian Basin of West Texas, after the CO2 had been used for Enhanced Oil Recovery, "EOR", by the petroleum producers operating there.
They had some other suggestions, as well, which we will follow up on in the coming reports we mentioned above; but, before we lose you entirely, we best get to the abbreviated excerpts from the initial and following links in this dispatch to:
View Document or Access Individual Pages; DOI: 10.2172/6685301
"Title: Fuels from Microalgae: Technology Status, Potential, and Research Requirements
OSTI ID: 6685301; Report Number: SERI/SP-231-2550; USDOE Contract: AC02-83CH10093
Date: August, 1986
Authors: B. Neenan, et. al.; Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO
Abstract: Although numerous options for the production of fuels from microalgae have been proposed, our analysis indicates that only two qualify for extensive development - gasoline and ester fuel. In developing the comparisons that support this conclusion, we have identified the major areas of microalgae production and processing that require extensive development. Technology success requires developing and testing processes that fully utilize the polar and nonpolar lipids produced by microalgae. Process designs used in these analyses were derived from fragmented, preliminary laboratory data. These results must be substantiated and integrated processes proposed, tested, and refined to be able to evaluate the commercial feasibility from microalgae. The production of algal feedstocks for processing to gasoline or ester fuel requires algae of high productivity and high lipid content that efficiently utilize saline waters. Species screening and development suggest that algae can achieve required standards taken individually, but algae that can meet the integrated requirements still elude researchers. Effective development of fuels from microalgae technology requires that R and D be directed toward meeting the integrated standards set out in the analysis. As technology analysts, it is inappropriate for us to dictate how the R and D effort should proceed to meet these standards. We end our role by noting that alternative approaches to meeting the feasibility targets have been identified, and it is now the task of program managers and scientists to choose the appropriate approach to assure the greatest likelihood of realizing a commercially viable technology.
(We interrupt to note, that, as above and as we will document in reports to follow, work, quite sophisticated and successful work, has been accomplished to further develop the needed "algae of high productivity and high lipid content".)
Microalgae are single-celled aquatic plants that have many potential uses including irrigation, waste-water treatment, and the production of food, fuels, and commodity chemicals. The SERI/DOE microalgae program focuses on the production of fuels from microalgae feedstocks. This study presents the results of a comprehensive evaluation that assesses the technology of fuels from rnicroalgae and its potential for becoming a cost effective energy supply option.
The DOE/SERI program emphasizes the development of microalgae systems in the desert Southwest because this area offers flat land, high incident solar radiation, and few competing land uses; locating the mass culture facility in this region would minimize land costs. The use of saline water, which is a suitable medium for the growth of many microalgae, minimizes both water costs and competition with other uses for limited supplies of fresh water in the Southwest. Finally, the program emphasizes the production of lipids from microalgae because plant storage lipids could be among the best biomass feedstocks for producing renewable, high-energy liquid fuels.
(Note, above, their insistence on placing these things "in the desert Southwest". There are, as you will see in coming reports, better alternatives right here, in the Appalachian heart of US Coal Country.)
The fundamental components of a microalgal mass production technology (as illustrated) include water, nutrient, and carbon dioxide supply systems ... (as well as) culture ponds; harvesters; and processing equipment.
The identification or development of microalgal strains that will meet the performance criteria of high productivity; high lipid content; and wide ranges of environmental tolerance is the single most critical research requirement for the-economic viability of a microalgal fuel technology."
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And, we'll close our excerpts there, since, in addition to our reports to follow, concerning more of the information derived from this report directly, and it's relation to current circumstances and other, independent, developments; we will also be sending along additional information concerning the "development of microalgal strains", as noted above, especially well-suited for these CO2-recycling purposes, that are derivative of even other, similar USDOE-sponsored efforts, about which we have earlier reported, as in:
USDOE Finances Ohio CO2 Recycling | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20020072109 - Enhanced Practical Photosynthetic CO2 Mitigation; 2002; Inventors: David Bayless, et. al., Ohio; (Though not published in the Application, Bayless and his co-inventors, as we will further document via references to follow, are on the faculty of Ohio University, in Athens, OH.) Abstract: This process is unique in photosynthetic carbon sequestration. An on-site biological sequestration system directly decreases the concentration of carbon-containing compounds in the emissions of fossil generation units. In this process, photosynthetic microbes are attached to a growth surface arranged in a containment chamber that is lit by solar photons. A harvesting system ensures maximum organism growth and rate of CO2 uptake. Soluble carbon and nitrogen concentrations delivered to the cyanobacteria are enhanced, further increasing growth rate and carbon utilization.
The U.S. Government has a paid up license in this invention and the right in limited circumstances to require the patent owner to license others on reasonable terms as provided for by the terms of Program Solicitation Number DE-PS26-99FT40613 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy"; and, in:
USDOE Algae Make Hydrogen for Coal and CO2 Hydrogenation | Research & Development; concerning: "Photosynthetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Production by Green Algae; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; 1999; Abstract: Photosynthesis research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is focused on hydrogen and oxygen production by green algae in the context of its potential as a renewable fuel and chemical feed stock";
wherein it was seen that our USDOE's Oak Ridge, TN, Laboratory, who were, we believe, the supervisors of the work by Bayless and colleagues at Ohio University, had begun to develop their own variations on the art and science of Carbon Dioxide utilization through the cultivation of specialized strains of Algae.
Finally, our often-stated opinion is that we, here, tend to prefer more direct, chemical-engineering sorts of Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies, such as seen, for just one out of now many examples, in:
Pittsburgh 1941 CO2 + Methane = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2,266,989 - Manufacture of a Gas from CO2 and Methane; 1941; Assignee: Koppers Company, Pittsburgh, PA; Abstract: The present invention relates to the manufacture of gases suitable for the synthesis of higher hydrocarbons ... (through the reactions of) methane ... with carbon dioxide or a mixture of carbon dioxide and steam".
However, we are beginning to be swayed a bit, especially since, as will be seen in yet another report to follow, concerning our subject herein, "Fuels from Microalgae", our USDOE specifies that associated technologies can be applied to the remains of Algae, nourished by industrial effluent Carbon Dioxide, after the Algae have been processed for the recovery of "gasoline and ester fuel"; one of which would actually produce the Methane which could be utilized to recycle even more CO2, via, for example, the process of that, as above, "United States Patent 2,266,989".