We've submitted many reports documenting the fact that industrial effluent, or even atmospheric, Carbon Dioxide can be effectively recycled, and converted into a number of valuable products, including liquid hydrocarbon fuels, through the industrialized mediation of specific microorganisms, with Green Algae being most often employed.
Our own United States Department of Energy, especially, has focused a great deal of effort on the development of such Algae-based technology, as our more recent spate of reports on their activities in that area of endeavor might reflect.
The biological, photosynthetic recycling of Carbon Dioxide by Green Algae results, or can be made to result, in the production of a number of valuable materials. Those would include the one we have focused on most often, i.e., "bio-lipids", quite literally oils, which can be extracted from the Algae and then refined, via almost standard petroleum industry techniques, into typical liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
A biomass, consisting mostly of cellulose, remains after such oil extraction. And, that, too, as we have once or twice documented, and as we will explain further in reports to follow, can be utilized in the production of both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.
Algae cultivated especially to recycle effluent Carbon Dioxide have other potentials, as well, however; as we initially reported in at least one previous dispatch, now accessible via:
USDOE Algae Make Hydrogen for Coal and CO2 Hydrogenation | Research & Development; concerning: "Photosynthetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Production by Green Algae; E. Greenbaum and J. W. Lee; 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."
Such co-production of Hydrogen by Algae, as they go about their other business of converting Carbon Dioxide into liquid hydrocarbons, might seem just an interesting bit of trivia, since no one really wants to switch to an Hydrogen-fueled economy, and then go sailing down the Interstate at 70 miles per hour in a mini-Hindenberg looking for an errant spark of electricity.
Hydrogen, however, in the role of a "chemical feed stock", would be of immense value, since, as seen in:
WVU Hydrogenates Coal Tar | Research & Development; concerning the: "Hydrogenation of Naphthalene and Coal Tar Distillate; West Virginia University; 2009; The hydrogenation of naphthalene and coal-tar distillates has been carried out in a Trickle Bed Reactor, in which the liquid is allowed to flow through the catalyst bed in the presence of hydrogen (which ultimately results in) the conversion of coal to refinable crude hydrocarbons, from which liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, etc., can be produced";
and, in:
NASA Rocket Fuel from CO2 | Research & Development; wherein we're told, that we can, "via the Sabatier process" simply combine "carbon dioxide (CO2) with hydrogen (H), then heat the mixture to produce CH4 and H20 -- methane and water";
we can use elemental Hydrogen to convert both our abundant Coal and our, some say too-abundant, Carbon Dioxide into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels.
Herein, we learn that the process of generating Hydrogen, as the by-product of recycling Carbon Dioxide through the use of Algae, as noted above in our citation of "Photosynthetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Production by Green Algae", is so practical that one of the USDOE authors of that report has been awarded a US Patent for the technology.
As an advance note, our excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch are highly-abbreviated. The full document contains a great deal of information pertaining to the specifics of genetic engineering and cellular metabolism that are both far beyond our scope and our, and we will presume most of your, understanding.
However, our expert US Government patent examiners have certified herein that our US Government energy experts know what they're talking about, so, we'll go with it.
That said, comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 7,642,405 - Designer Algae for Photo-biological Hydrogen Production
Date: January, 2010
Inventor: James W. Lee, Tennessee
This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 awarded by the United States Department of energy. The Government has certain rights in this invention.
Abstract: A switchable photosystem-II designer algae for photo-biological hydrogen production. The designer transgenic algae includes at least two transgenes for enhanced photo-biological H2 production. In one embodiment, a photo-bioreactor and gas-product separation and utilization system produce photo-biological H2 from the switchable ... designer alga.
Claims: A transgenic alga comprising at least one exogenous transgene for providing a photosystem-II (PSII) function switch to increase the photo-biological H2 productivity.
Background and Field: This invention pertains to a switchable ... designer organism that is specifically designed for enhanced photo-biological production of molecular hydrogen (H2). The various embodiments include (1) application of a genetic switch that can control ... production of H2 without O2 production and (other factors) that further enhance photo-biological H2 production.
Various embodiments (solve some of the) major problems that currently challenge those in the field of photo-biological H2 production (including) poisoning of the hydrogenase enzyme by O2 (and) the mixed H2 and O2 gas-product separation and safety issues ... .
(The specified Algae species) photosynthetic hydrogen (H2) production from water has tremendous potential to be a clean and renewable energy resource. As (illustrated), in the algal system, H2 is produced (by the) photosynthetic oxidation of water using sunlight energy.
In one embodiment, the ... designer algae are used with a photo-bioreactor and gas-product separation and utilization system for enhanced ... H2 production.
The various embodiments effectively provide a single-organism ... two-stage H2-production technology. In various embodiments, organic reserve, such as starch, is accumulated through ... algal culture growth by normal oxygenic photosynthesis using CO2 and sunlight energy in an aerobic reactor.
When the algal culture is grown and significant amounts of organic reserves are accumulated in the designer alga cells, the culture is placed under anaerobic conditions to express the designer genes to shut off ... oxygen evolution ... so that the algae will produce H2 by the metabolic ... H2 production pathways without production of O2.
The source of electrons for the metabolic ... H2 production is organic reserves such as starch that are made in the previous cycle of oxygenic photosynthetic Carbon Dioxide fixation."
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And, there, you have the essence of thing:
Certain types of Algae, grown in a "photo-bioreactor", and fed with "CO2 and sunlight", can subsequently be made to, in a cyclic process, when "placed under anaerobic conditions", produce elemental Hydrogen, from starches that were made during the "photosynthetic Carbon Dioxide fixation".
Which Hydrogen, again, could be used, as cited in our introductory comments, to convert both Coal and even more Carbon Dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels.
That, we remind you, would be in addition to the biological oils, or lipids, the Algae would produce, during the normal periods of "photosynthetic Carbon Dioxide fixation".
Which CO2-derived lipids, we further remind you, as seen in another of our earlier posts:
USDOE Algae Recycle CO2 into Liquid Fuels | Research & Development; concerning the report: "Liquid Fuels from Microalgae; 1987; USDOE Contract Number: AC36-99-GO10337; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO; USDOE; Abstract: The ... technology to produce gasoline and diesel fuels from microalgae. Microalgae can accumulate large quantities of lipids";
can be converted rather directly, through relatively-standard refining techniques, into "gasoline and diesel".