Did you know it is possible to capture the flue gases from a typical power plant and remove the carbon and nitrous oxides to grow algae? Of course you did! These are the kinds of things I pay attention to while procrastinating on a programming project. Here are some basic thoughts on the process.
Based on this, a large scale algae growing operation will produce approximately 10,000,000 gallons / year of fuel (or 521,000 barrels of crude oil) while reducing annual CO2 emissions by 1.36 million tons of CO2 annually. At an average of $3.28/gallon currently, that represents $32.8M in additional revenues for the power plant in question.
Sounds pretty awesome. Problems exist to be sure. Light conditions can affect growth rates, and production really only occurs during the day, though sequestration might help with that. The process uses water, but is primarily closed cycle because the water is extracted during the final processing step and reclaimed. Because the process uses waste heat from the power plant, there is no additional production of greenhouse gas as a result of the process.
Many companies are currently working on these processes, and I eagerly await results coming out of several of the pilot projects out there. If you are an investor, the current leader of the pack is GreenFuel Technologies out of Cambridge. Keep an eye on these guys.
