The world has always been irony. The smallest of things could cause the biggest of impacts. Virus, the tiniest semi-organism on Earth ever known, could kill hundreds and thousands of people. Bacterias, small as they are, without them decomposing the compost, Earth would be a barren wasteland of mass garbage.
Subsequently, it's not a surprise that 40 years from now, our source of fuels would come from small little water-living organism with the size no bigger than a peanut - the algae.
In the second part of the series Ecopolis, aired on Discovery Channel, the problem of transportation are being addressed. Transportation nowadays poses one of the biggest threats to the future of our cities. Scientists estimated there would be two billion vehicles and a seven-fold aviation increase by 2050. These large numbers of vehicles and aviations could emit 12 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Los Angeles ranked as the most polluted city in the nation for all categories in the report, even though LA's pollution levels have dropped. (Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
Four new advancements has been introduced as possible solutions : algae biofuel, fuel cell vehicles, blended wing aircraft and the electric jeepney (e-jeepney).
Today, I'll briefly introduce the most appealing advancements to me here - algae biofuel.
The algae transform carbon dioxide under the exposure of sunlight into energy. As part of the process, the algae produce oil. They "can generate 15 times more oil per acre than other plants used for biofuels, such as corn and switchgrass.
Algae can grow in salt water, freshwater or even contaminated water, at sea or in ponds, and on land not suitable for food production."-ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2008) .
Environmental engineering professors Andres Clarens (center) and Lisa Colosi (right) have teamed up with commerce professor Mark White to investigate how algae may offer the biofuel of the future. (Credit: Melissa Maki)
Besides, algae feeds on carbon dioxide and organic material such as sewage - using algae as source of fuel would also help to clean up the environment.
The algae produce purer oil in terms of low carbon products than vegetable oil. It could mean less carbon dioxide emission when burned in the engines of vehicles.
However the new technology faces a few challenges too. One of them is the mass financial support in extracting the oil from the algae - it involves a form of complicated technology that costs a lot. Though scientists supporting algae biofuel remain optismistic that there would be better and more cost-efficient algae-oil-extracting technology being introduced in the near future.
In spite of that, it is still in question if the burning of algae biofuel would emit other harmful gases beyond carbon monoxide and green house gases.
It sounds almost the ideal solution to the problem of pollution causes by transportation - using algae biofuel requires less usage of lands than petroleum processing, less time of extracting than oil-palm planting, and they can be grown easily in mass.
However in the second part of the series Ecopolis, the host Dan Kammen examined all four advancements and decided that e-jeepney would be the best choice, considering that people should be encouraged to use public transportation.
Though the idea of algae biofuel still sounds the most interesting to me - imagine our cities fueled up with the oil extracted from these small little algae, we would be literally being lifted up by these small giants.
Although e-jeepney has been chosen by Kammen, but still, the idea of algae biofuel makes a food for thought - how could we have thought that things as small as an algae could be the big hope for our future on Earth?
This world always has its way of surprising us, in ways we least expected. Hope, can be found in the most impossible place.
8 comments:
It's strange how scientist said it's very expensive for their first few inventions because it's a new technology but it'll water down and become cost efficient in the end.
But I've heard rumours of how petroleum companies will buy these inventions that will keep the Earth energy running before it could be commercialised so unless they be wary of the dangers of capitalism, these inventions will not be heard of.
Just knowing that this kind of biofuel, has been started its application in aerospace industry (aero boy here...)
As you said, emitting less CO2 into the environment, it's environmental friendly, requires no modification to normal engine to burn this oil. Everything about it now.... is good. Except the cost.
Nevertheless... I do feel that in future when it's starting to be apply on more industry areas, we will find one or some of its weaknesses.
Anyway, I believed that biofuel generates less energy or ordinary fuel right?
Cindi: What the scientists said could be true or not true, but if it's true, I would hope the day that a cost-efficient algae-oil-extracting technology could be introduced :)
And yeah...capitalism eh...especially the Arab oil authorities....either they think of a new source of income fast or they just have to delay the emerge of new technology as long as they could - but i believe the delay could not be long....Earth is in critical danger already
We need new source of fuel that is renewable!
JcX : I guess the method has been introduced some time earlier. Just like helium-filled fuel cell technology, it was used in aerospace industry initially too - and then someone brought that idea and applied it on vehicles on land, though not yet popularized too.
And yeah, sure algae biofuel when burns, emit less CO2, but according to the programme Ecopolis, it seems that there is hidden risk/question if the burning of algae biofuel would emit other gases. And anyway, using algae oil, burning process to move the car is still necessary.And burning anything, I guess, would somehow emit something we don't want.
So yeah...guess that would be the weaknesses you mentioned would emerge in the future.
And actually, no, I don't think that biofuel generates less energy than ordinary fuel. In fact, in terms that the algae oil is more pure (low carbon), it actually means less quantity of the oil is needed to generate equal energy - as the high carbon less pure ordinary fuel would waste more energy on emitting CO2.
That's what i think though....might go and look it up to confirm some time...:)
If I'm not mistaken... when I was studying Chemistry about hydrocarbon, the carbon content is directly proportional to the energy released. Since oil could also be categorized as one variation of hydrocarbon (with only one extra Oxygen species existed in chain), I think they applies the same. Containing higher carbon content, (and also multiple bonds I think), will make the element having higher chemical energy.
Anyway, studying engineering makes me realized another fact. In another terms, engine efficiency also matters a lot whether burning process gives high amount energy or vice.
JcX: Yeah, I guess high carbon product does gives high energy when burnt, but it also means more waste of energy (the process of producing CO2 wasted some energy I think).
I think it's the matter if something is energy-efficient or not that counts here....But then again, I'm not very sure about it....:P
Oh.... actually, having more CO2 indicates that more energy waste?
Doubt that....
Because energy is mainly produced in a burning process, when the total energy when bonds being broke, is less than total energy when bonds being bind.
As we know, CO2 contains 2 double bonds. Who knows these bonds release more energy than others? We're not chemist.
JcX : Yeah leave it to the chemist @.@
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