algae = tou energy of the future
it this what china wanted to do by creating large sea water lakes in
the desert of (nei) inner mongolia
It's logical, really, when you think about it," Berzin
continues, "because all liquid fuels are compressed ancient organic
matter, the outcome of photosynthesis. The liquid fuels that are
pumped out of the earth are ancient plants. There are no miracles
here. We just accelerated the process. A quarter of the weight of
algae is vegetable oil from which biofuel can be produced, and the
point was to control the biology. My goal was to adapt the algae to
the local water and the local profile of the gases - to ensure they
would be happy
At the time, buses were blowing up every day in Jerusalem and
Tel Aviv. That preoccupied me. I thought to myself: Dear God, fuel is
killing us. After all, those terrorists are funded by fuel powers. I
felt it was off the wall to be dealing with cells in space, that I
should be engaged with a problem whose solution would change the
world: the problem of energy."
"I introduced the gases into the system as they were and
started to grow the algae in transparent plastic pipes. In effect, you
become an 'energy farmer.' The algae grow on the liquid base. In the
next stage of my experiments I grew the algae in a shallow,
plastic-covered pool. The algae grow in the water and divide at a wild
rate. In the morning the water is green and by evening it is already
black. Afterward the algae are separated from the water. Every day I
harvested a third of 10 centimeters, you pump out the liquid, and
every day a third of the volume is taken."
And the fuel is produced from the pulp of the algae?
"Exactly. You separate the algae from the water, and then you have
pulp, a green sludge from which the oil is extracted. Back then, all
the existing technologies to separate algae from water were too
expensive. I had to find a different technolog
I remember a moment when I thought I was on the right track,
and then I suddenly made a calculation and understood that the effort
I had made to compress the gas was in vain. I realized that I was
actually losing energy rather than producing energy."
We succeeded in finding a different path," Berzin goes on. "I
remember skeptics who told me I would never achieve what I wanted. 'Do
you know how much it costs to grow algae today?' they said. That in
fact was a crucial stage in the chain of challenges that prevented
this from being a true and profitable technology. But we did it. From
an installation of one square kilometer we are now producing five
million liters of green fuel a year. After the technology was
demonstrated at MIT, the next stage was to take it to a real power
plant. Until then I had raised enough money to do it on a small scale.
Now it was time to go big. So I went to Arizona."
The industry is aware of the environmental problem it is
creating, and its alternative solution is to compress the CO2 as pure
gas into the depths of the earth. But dumps like that might be
released one day and cruise to the nearby city and kill millions of
people before they fall to earth. Because carbon dioxide is a
necessary byproduct in the burning process, the electricity companies
are scared stiff, so they fight the Al Gores of the world. I am
proposing a solution that not only does not cost them money, it makes
money. I have turned things upside down - there is no punishment and
no risk. So what's the problem? I understood that I had to solve a
tremendous problem of the industry in order to actualize my green
technology."
Does the fuel produced from algae compete with green fuels
made from corn and soy?
"It turns out that the biofuels produced from corn or soy seeds -
fuels that are considered the future substitute for pollutant fuel -
cause environmental damage themselves. It is also not economically
viable: to grow the soy beans you need leaves and roots, a whole
system that sup****ts the beans from which the oil is produced. No such
system is required to grow algae. Their rate of growth is 10 to 100
times that of any other biological system. So if you have a unit of
land, you can achieve orders of production that are many times higher.
This is a process that does not compete for land and water resources -
algae can grow in saltwater and in sewage."
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