More Algae in the News.

Here is a company that has started a pilot project to reduce their green house gases by 60% when it’s in full operation.

The power plant in Boardman, Oregon, is the state’s only coal-fired facility — and also the the state’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. To deal with this problem, Portland General Electric and Columbia Energy Partners have started a pilot project to turn the otherwise nasty emissions into biodiesel, ethanol, and even livestock feed.

Tags: algae, green house gases

Gasification Plant

Here is an article about a the approval of a new power plant. It will daily convert 400 metric tons of trash to 21 megawatts of net electricity. The plant will be able to power about 19,000 homes.

The plant, proposed by PlascoEnergy Group, will use gasification (rather than more commonly used incineration) to generate electricity, and they’re hoping they can use a cooler gasification process to lower the cost to a competitive price. The plant will utilize plasma-torch technology to break down trash into syngas – a mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide – which can be burned in turbines and engines to create electricity.

Check out the full article here Ottawa Building North America’s First Gasification Facility. I love to hear about these kinds of alternative energy solutions.

Tags: alternative energy, gasification

Worm Castings

Here is what worm castings or worm poop will do for your flowers!  These sit in direct sunlight everyday and are still very hearty plants.  Before we started using worm castings in these planters they would dry out too fast and the plants would die.  The worm castings are holding the moisture and sustaining the plants throughout the day.  Plus they are growing so big due to the natural fertilizer in the worm castings.

If you would like some worm castings “worm poop” let me know I might be able to help you out.

Tags: fertilizer, worm castings, worm poop

Grow Algae, Create BioDiesel, Feed the Worms

I had the idea not too long ago to combine the growing of algae in a bioreactor. Then you can harvest the algae and run it through a press and squeeze out the oil to make biodiesel fuel. Now most systems like this. The left over biomass or algae cakes are burned and the CO2 is pumped back into the algae bioreactor. I want to do something a little different and feed the algae cakes to my hordes of biomass eating red worms. This mass of worms would love to devour the algae cakes that are left over from the fuel making process. The byproduct of the the worms eating algae and the worm castings themselves would create the perfect organic soil fertilizer. Now don’t go out and steal my idea you just might save the planet and have a great looking vegetable garden also. Currently my worms are pretty much on a paper/banana diet so they might enjoy a change in diet.

Have any alternative fuel or composting ideas?

Tags: algae, biodiesel, worm castings

Using Algae to make Biodiesel!

I just love the idea of using the stuff I try and keep out of the pool all year long for something good. Here is an article over at “Biodiesel Fuel Online.” This is not a new technology but I wonder why it’s not more popular. I guess technologies move much slower in the world of energy. Good Stuff!

Is Biodiesel Algae the Future?

Never has it been more important than now to find an alternative fuel source. Unless a different fuel source is located people will continue to be dependent on the oil companies. With new evidence being uncovered daily about the links between the leaders of those countries producing petroleum and terrorists - the demand for an alternative fuel has never been much higher than it is now.

Biodiesel fuel seems to be the answer for many reasons and being able to produce biodiesel from an algae seems to point the way forward.

This method has been proven to be possibly the most economical of methods thanks to the amount of land needed to produce the biodiesel being relatively small.

The algae itself contains a vast amount of natural oil thus making it a perfect candidate for creating the fuel. Biodiesel algae can also be grown and harvested very quickly meaning the production process is sped up dramatically.

Studies have shown that algae can produce up to 30 times more biodiesel than the crops that are currently used. Biodiesel made from algae is also biodegradable and is non-toxic.

Some were concerned that growing algae may cause problems with land currently used for growing crops, those fears have been allayed due to the fact that algae can grow in virtually any climate. This means that even land which isn’t suitable for farming can now be used to grow algae. Going further this may be beneficial to countries unable to grow crops due to their economy - the relative cheapness of growing biodiesel algae could be a Saviour for them.

There’s still a long way to go for biodiesel fuels. However, the more algae that’s grown, the more awareness will increase. People will purchase biodiesel vehicles and the alternate fuel source could take off more than it already has. At least, that’s the plan…

Earlier this year a New Zealand company was the first to mine biodiesel from algae found in sewage. In May of this year the first production of biodiesel from algae outside the laboratory was carried out. Of course the benefit of obtaining biodiesel from this type of algae is that it already exists - in fact there’s too much of it - in the sewage. Algae can take out chemicals in the sewage but if there’s too much of it, the algae can taint the water. Read more on this story here

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Worms?

Last year I started a couple of worm composting bins. At first I was just having a good time trying to raise them. Now it has changed into a mission to try and reduce my kitchen garbage by about half. It is going to take a lot of worms to do this. Does anyone else use worms to compost? So far I’m only composting small amounts of food scraps and it takes around a week or so for the worms to eat what I put in there. I’m hoping by the end of this summer I will have enough worms to get a little more serious and start composting the paper garbage.