Comments on: XPRIZE Video – Algae Biofuel

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:00:09 +0000

I cannot inviarti link for this way comment, but the piÃ ¹ economic that has been in a position to producing bio-fuels in a bioreattore (l' only half reasonable of scales-up), Ã¨ ~ $ 7/kg. Assuming that the mass of lipids 50% and 85% of efficiency for the cleansing and the refining of the oil (in this Ã¨ the many generous on both foreheads), obtains ~ $ 16. 47/kg of the diesel oil. A gallon of Ã¨ diesel oil ~ 3. 3 kg. For the collection of alghe natural (not scalabili), coast ~ $ 3/kg. And ' costoso.* *Questo Spallucce not Ã¨ be meant like an attack.:)

By: hdelicious

hdelicious — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:42:05 +0000

great info, and done in an interesting way

By: JimtheEvo

JimtheEvo — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:16:14 +0000

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By: Magganrchy

Magganrchy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:01:54 +0000

How can something that can double, quadruple, even octuple it’s weight in a day be cost prohibitive?

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:10:59 +0000

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By: nopethegeek

nopethegeek — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:23:38 +0000

It only costs a lot to put the infrastructure in place. Once production is ramped up, it will be very inexpensive. The water is not a problem in a closed loop system (you reuse the water). The nutrients are not a problem, as you can use livestock waste. The sunlight is not a problem – if you cultivate in areas with lots of sunlight (read the desert). The CO2? Ha! Ironic that seems to be the troublesome greenhouse gas we don’t know what to do with. =)

By: nopethegeek

nopethegeek — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:55:29 +0000

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By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:51:13 +0000

It mistakes to you on various accounts. In the first instance, the costs of happen them are a part of the cost of the product. If a cost of capital is had them of up-front of 9 billions of euro to a discount rate of 30 years of 10% on a system that produces a million cheats them/year, that it works to ~ $ 933/bbl. Ahead, you will have the nourishing substances. Animal refusals pu

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:30:48 +0000

Ran out-of-room.
The nutrients add another ~$100/bbl – $200/bbl.
Then there’s energy. Every liter of water has to be pumped and filtered every 3 hours. The filtered algae then has to be dried and crushed, and the resulting algae oil has to be filtered, hydrocracked, refined, and distilled. Energy costs run at least $400/bbl in large scale production.
Then there’s labor. To produce ~50 million gallons/year (our 9 billion dollar system), would require nearly a million km of tubes.

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:01:04 +0000

Ran out-of-room again.

Those tubes must be cleaned, and would eventually degrade (reducing insolation) and need to be replaced. . . .
The costs here are hard to quantify, but they are VERY high.

There has only been 2 large-scale attempts at algae oil production. Both shut down after 2 years, and the average expense for algae oil in those two cases was ~40,000/gallon (of course, this is because the enormous capital costs were only amortized over two years).

Algae oil is expensive.

By: jpthecreaton

jpthecreaton — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:55:57 +0000

yeah, but cell phones used to be $2500 and weigh 30 lbs and cost $2-3 per min to use. . . now you can get one for $10 and it weighs ounces, and $40 will have you yapping your face off for a month. same with this-once everyone is onboard, it’ll be cheap.

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:59:35 +0000

Massive infrastructure projects are not cell phones. There’s no correlation between the two at all. There is nothing on the drawing board for any of these companies to reduce costs to under ~$50/gallon.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles costed ~1 million dollars apiece in the 90′s. . . Now, 20 years later, they still cost ~1 million dollars apiece.
Some times bad ideas just cost too much, and regardless of support those costs cannot be reduced.

By: jpthecreaton

jpthecreaton — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:11:52 +0000

a wireless worldwide communication system isn’t a large infrastructure? without the infrastructure a cellphone is just a walkie-talkie.

By: datzfast

datzfast — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:35:13 +0000

so, oil does not cost ALOT?

By: datzfast

datzfast — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:11:29 +0000

the dead cells must be removed with the living cells because the dead and the living cells contain equal amounts of lipid rich membrane. lipid rich membrane is the source of the biofuel. some people will not be happy until yo just put the algae and water in your gas tank and turn on the key. That may be possible someday

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:29:38 +0000

not datzfast, l' oil not coast a lot! … not to the comparison. The Ã¨ oil exchanged to ~ $ 75/bbl, or ~ $ 1. 80/gallon. In this moment the oil less beloved alghe that puÃ ² to find Ã¨ of being sold to the marine one to $ 425/gallon. This Ã¨ 238 times the cost that commercializes oil. If the oil had to increase of Ã¨ cost of beyond the 10fold, then oil of alghe would be still a cost of 20 times l' amount that the oil crude oil makes. Draft of an economic obstacle that not sarÃ never exceeded.

By: datzfast

datzfast — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:16:26 +0000

oh come on, i just read the article you got that from and it stated they paid that amount for the R and D and start up facilities. And they hope to use this biofuel soon, but not at 425 a gallon. get a life please. Are you one of those that wont be happy until you just turn the key?
i think maybe you were by passed

By: datzfast

datzfast — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:22:42 +0000

i grew a whole swimming pool full of this algae, by accident
thats how hard it is to grow folks. very careful scientific measurements with hard to pronounce additives were not required.

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:18:35 +0000

I have tried to answer pi

By: FishyMoe

FishyMoe — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:02:40 +0000

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By: FishyMoe

FishyMoe — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:14:12 +0000

@GlennDoty yeah but thats to the Navy. The US defense force spends ridiculous amounts of money for things. For example, they spend like $200 for a pillow for a soldier. I recently bought a top of the range, memory foam pillow for $100, so I don’t know what they are sleeping on. This is only expensive now as it is a new technology and the infrastructure isn’t in place to be cost effective. yet.

By: GlennDoty

GlennDoty — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:40:30 +0000

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By: FishyMoe

FishyMoe — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:04:05 +0000

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By: cassie23231

cassie23231 — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:05:36 +0000

It appeals to make to me through several

By: cassie23231

cassie23231 — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:04:13 +0000

@tremolomasta i like your inder