CTN EcoLogic

I initially liked the corn-to-ethanol idea untill i studied it more. It actually hurts more than it helps in the big picture, but since it is an immediately available answer, can it be all that bad?
Yes. Because other smarter options exist.

Why is it that people in the know complain about corn stocks for ethanol being a bad idea?… well partly because it takes more energy to make than its worth in both economics of cycle and in carbon cost. But even more importantly, there are other options that are simple, smart and available now.
The Military began this effort through a Darpa funded program to develop sustainable cycle JP-8 jet fuel production. Algae developed to produce the proper formulation of oil for for fuel got developed and enhanced and then continuous farming processes were developed to see how well it would scale to production levels. It worked.

The cool part is that its a carbon neutral photosynthesis process that sequesters CO2 in equal amounts to the CO2 created in use. The story is told well in this clip:

Currently there are a lot of startups working on each aspect of this process, from farming algae to processing and supply-chain fulfillment. This could well be the Jet fuel and Bio-diesel of NOW , not tomorrow. Imagine a few wind turbines powering a bunch of water pumps and process extraction equipment, and you can envision a totally sustainable outcome.

Thanks out to the Pickens plan folks who dig this stuff up, since quite often the stuff in there has nothing to do with pickens-plan at all , and is really greater in the green interests of us all.

Tags: Algae Fuel

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