Green Gasoline

[ragboy]

Being the geek that I am, I do a lot of reading on alternative fuels and such. I have done a lot of reading on the inferiority of ethanol to gasoline, and I just saw this article, which I thought was very cool. Basically, making 91 octane gasoline from a renewable source, algae. Sure would be a nice transition until we all have hydrogen powered combustion engines. <--my fav

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1687/70/

[jake's02-22i]

wow that is sweet. the farther away we can get away from other countries the better.

[Guest]

Being the geek that I am, I do a lot of reading on alternative fuels and such. I have done a lot of reading on the inferiority of ethanol to gasoline, and I just saw this article, which I thought was very cool. Basically, making 91 octane gasoline from a renewable source, algae. Sure would be a nice transition until we all have hydrogen powered combustion engines. <--my fav

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1687/70/

Interesting. I will need to read more about it and affect on water and emissions, We don't need to start screwing with the oceans but if we could use an arid area, add a little water and ice and viola a burnable fuel that would be cool. j/k

Like other alternatives to oil it is worth studying and determining its impacts both positive and negative, IMO don't make the greenhouse affect or pollution in general worse and don't screw the pooch(the environment) for an alternative fuel source unless these impacts are less or significantly less than crude oil.

Like I said I need to read more when head is on straight. Another f'ing cluster bleary eyed Fenanyl, morphine,ambien night. What I would do for a normal night again.

[ragboy]

I really like the idea of hydrogen combustion engines, like BMW is working with. It seems like a great permanent replacement for what we have now, instead of hydrogen fuel cell, and electric power. Then thinking of solar power generating hydrogen, how cool would that be? The sun makes the hydrogen, and the output of the engine is water. The BMW prototype actually take in air, and makes it CLEANER as you drive.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/06/03/...leans-the-air/

But to quickly get off of OIL, to transition to hydrogen, something like this Green Gasoline would be great. IMHO of course.

[Studman]

I was reading in a magazine a few months back about a bacteria that they have micro engineered to create oil at a byproduct of sugar they were saying that it's highly expensive and they need to create a hardier and cheaper bacteria to last in the harsh conditions that oil is stored, manufactured etc.
http://www.popsci.com/environment/ar...eeding-oil-bug

[ragboy]

Yes, I read about that, but I believe those are also producing types of alcohol/ethanol. If they are able to produce gasoline from algae, it would run in our vehicles without alteration.

[dogbert]

That reminds me of an article I read a year or two ago about a company here in Texas that had patented a method to produce biodiesel from a similar source (essentially pond scum). They were saying it was 100 times more productive per acre than the equivalent soy-based product.

[rogersbm82]

My , not that I am conspiracy theory kind of person but, I just don't see any of this overcoming the use of crude. The government, (all parties) have got their hands so deep in the oil markets pockets. If we were to not have a need or dependency on crude, they would be broke and powerless. I mean, we have the technology and the resources to do it, you would think with the problems today this might be a priority for the government but seems money is more important. I'll stop ranting now. And by the way, I am not anti-government, this is just my opinion on the subject and I love the U.S.

[dogbert]

I think you're right about the use of crude, however, if you can reduce the dependency, that's a good thing. Right now, the problem is that they literally have us over a barrel.

[mtnsmith]

another really cool article i just read a couple of months ago is oil shale, and yes shell if the leader in extracting it so far

http://www.shell.us/home/content/usa...row_shale.html

[TJRiver]

The algae process is very interesting. The process needs existing algae, CO2 and sunlight. Pull the CO2 from the scrubbers power generators are having to put on their stacks, put these "farms" in the arid Southwest and let her rip. The real issue is going to be what are the actual costs to produce the stuff and get it to consumers. $5-$8/gal gas will do more to get alternative energy sources off the ground than the last 30 years of Gov. regs.......

[ragboy]

I agree, conspiracy theory or not, at $5/gallon people are going to FORCE change. They made it clear in the algae article, due to current environment, these guys are getting money THROWN at them to get this going.

[dogbert]

Yeah, and they need to stop with this carbon offset , it's totally counter productive and is nothing more than a tax...no wonder Al Gore is for it.

[zad0030]

Boo Ethanol!

[stoddardk]

Colorado State University, my alma mater, has a medium scale testing lab for producing algae fuels. I know of 4 people that continually run algae gasoline in their cars. (All of which were made in the 80's).
I read a couple of the Engineering newsletters that stated that on a large scale this fuel could be produced to be sold around $2 a gallon.