Barack Obama:
We're making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that's actually made from a plant-like substance -- algae. You've got a bunch of algae out here, right? If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we'll be doing all right.
The earth:
The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Thursday.
Obama's views on the future of batteries are equally strange. This is a scientifically naive president.
A hallmark of a true "greenie". Just like McGinty in Ontario, he's got Niagra Falls sitting on his door step, a nuclear reactor (admitedly in need of major repairs) so instead he starts setting up fields of wind fans.
Wonder if anyone has told him if it was worth doing private enterprise would have been all over it? Nahhh.......just helping out another friend.
The company I am associated with has supplied LED lights for experimental algae containers which can produce bio-diesel.
The possibility of creating diesel from the algae is proven and has many advantages.
The algae grows in light and heat and the off-gassing product is diesel which can be poured directly into your diesel motor without refinement. The algae, once finished its life cycle can be dried and turned into extremely high protein livestock feed.
There are bugs to be worked out, for sure on the commercial units, but there are home units now available which can be purchased.
There is a lot of interest in 3rd world countries, as these units can be placed anywhere which has a heat source and water. The advantage of the LED lights is that they can be adjusted to control their light spectrum and target the algae which produced the biofuel. The water does not have to be cleaned, any water can be used, even waste water.
All the government has to do is stay out of the business and the technological advances can happen the fastest and cheapest way possible. The moment they want to ride that wave, we are so screwed!!!
Biodiesel capital costs are off the chart. Heated buildings, vessels and reactors and pumps and light. The amount of diesel produced per square foot is a pittance compared to the capital needed.
The algae keep dying ang get infected with wild strains that produce no oil.
The thing is a disaster and wont work for at least 25 years.
Now what they should be working on is a form of energy from used weed -- that would fit perfectly with the demographic that Obama serves, and would keep most of them gainfully employed.
I envisage a network of weed farms hooked into the grid. Actually, except for the direction of flow, we already have that going here in B.C.
@ Peter O'Donnell
They could start with these:
http://notrickszone.com/2011/07/04/weed-covered-solar-park-20-acres-11-million-only-one-and-half-years-old/
I would like to see Obama's science degree. Is it with his birth certificate and transcripts at his composite girlfriends' houses?
dfgdfgf at May 12, 2012 11:11 PM
As is any new or emerging technologies, but there are some very smart and well capitalized investors and inventors which are bringing the costs down every day.
It will come around.
Here's a way to make biofuel from algae and used plant and animal matter. Bury it under a pile of dirt. Let it compress and sit for a couple of million years, then drill up the ooze and separate out (refine) the components -- voila! And most of the process is all natural -- can't get any more green than that.
Glacierman: setting aside my skepticism that making liquid fuels from scratch has even a ghost of a chance to be a cheaper method than extracting some of the trillions of barrels of already made naturally occurring stuff - I say to those who want to try "Godspeed"...
On their own dime.
It is my understanding that there are a few fracking projects happening right now in the green river area on lands adjacent to the massive federal landbase that has been blocked from be drilled. If these projects announce successful results (and a little bird assures me they will) between now and November it could become a very big issue in the POTUS campaign.
glacierman, given the amount of water involved with any algae process ,I seriously doubt anything comes off that can be poured into an engine
My opinion of Obama and his Administration's energy policies is similar to yours, but the "oil shale" referred to here is actually kerogen. It has nothing to do with fracking for petroleum, and its development is a very long way off even under the most favorable circumstances.
"but there are some very smart and well capitalized investors and inventors which are bringing the costs down every day"
Translation: Costs are through the roof and subsidies will throw away billions like they did on wind farms. And Now Germany's power grid is nearing collapse.
http://notrickszone.com/2012/05/11/germanys-federal-network-agency-power-grid-on-the-brink-thanks-to-renewable-energies/
Wasnt there a theory around a whilebago that oil was being renewed by microbes etc. This was laughed at ny those who said we were running out of oil no idea whether the rheory was right or not.
I mention just to point out that the progressive aide brings back theories when it suits them. I assume algae jet fuel still emits carbon when burned. So what ia it, are we running out of carbon fuels or ate carbon fuelsbgoing to kill us.....cant keep up to where the left is these days
We did early biofuel experiments out on the farm in the early 70's. Take a 1000 gallon fuel tank leave about 30 gallons of diesel fuel in it and add a touch of water. Leave over the winter and don't touch it until June. In our case what was produced were premature dinos that did not burn well in John Deer tractors.
We gave up as it simply was not cost effective.:)
And where did all of the Green River oil come from? From thousands of feet thickness of dead compacted algae. The amount of algae grown in a wading pool just isn't going to take you very far.
Stephan Jack
Check up on "Abiotic Oil"
http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/Theory/SustainableOil/
Cheers
@ J.M. Heinrichs at May 14, 2012 12:44 AM
Good link. So all the "experts" were wrong again. Of course "experts" all learn from other "experts" that learned from the "experts" before them. When I was growing up we learned from school books written by the "experts" that all oil came from decomposed dinosaures. Even as a young lad that seemed suspect as that had to be one crapload of dinosaures. Now the "experts" are telling us that dinosaur farts caused the elevated CO2 and methane levels and is associated with global warming. Once again this is suspect for the same reason stated earlier. But, hey , someone is funding this and I understand that the gravy train must roll on. What I need to know is if humans are now off the hook and whether Al Gore/Suzuki have revised that hockey stick graph to compensate for the new "expert" findings. I have also decided that I too would like to be a "expert" as there is good money in it and the MSM prints anything a "expert" throws at them. I am working on a thesis called "Sh1t we didn't even know about but can tax the hell out of." I figure it beats working for a living and take my inspiration from my role models like Gore/Suzuki. With any luck I can still get in on this Global warming thing before the Global cooling "experts" get their turn again. To cover all my bases I'm also writing a thesis named " Global cooling, no more dinosaur farts". Hoping to set me up for life and anyone that has doubts, just ask me as I am a "expert". Doubters are all "deniers" and we all know the MSM will be on my side.
Harvard has the best pot.
Like I always say..... uh.... where was I?