Feb. 09, 2007 - 21:52 MST

FUEL BY THE POND

Interesting that hope should come in this form, but an article in The Rocky Mountain News this morning does bring a tad of optimism to the fore. Written by Rachel Brand in a special to The Rocky printed in the business section. Herewith quoted in full:

YO HO HO 'N' A BOTTLE OF SCUM

Engines may be powered by biofuel plundered from algae, brewer's CO2

"First came Fat Tire Amber. Then came Sunshine Wheat. New Belgium Brewing Co.'s latest lliquid fuel will be based on pond scum."

"The envoronmentally friendly micro-brewery is working with a Fort Collins energy startup to make biodiesel fuel from algae, based partially on the beermaker's waste products. "

"Should the project suceed, it will prove that algae can produce 100 times more oil than soybeans. And that environmenalists hope -- will partly solve the world's energy problems."

"We were excited from the start," said New Belgium, COO Jen Orgolini. "We said in that first meeting with them, 'We'll sell this to our board.'"

"The biodiesel technology belongs to two-year old Solix Biofuels, located just 500 yards from New Belgium in an old coal fired power plant. The firm, in alliance with Colorado State University scientists, is working on algae-based biodiesel."

"New Belgium, which features windmills on its six packs, has a green-tinged history. In 1999, it was the first major U.S. company to buy 100 percent wind power. Three years later, it developed a system to generate methane from its wastewater. Now, its algae deal may allow it to sell carbon-dioxide emission credits on the open market -- a payment for reducing its carbon footprint."

"Solix hasn't produced one gallon of vehicle-ready fuel -- yet. But company scientists are confident their idea will work -- if they can get the algae to produce enough oil to grow quickly and within a cheap system.."

"We know it works. The biology works. The algae grows," said Solix CEO Doug Henston. But can you get them to grow and produce the way we want them to."

"Algae have been under scrutiny for years as a source of biofuels because they can be coaxed to produce lipids, or fats. As single-celled micro-organisms, they grow quickly, efficiently and productively. And because they are photosynthetic micro-organisms, they use plain old sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to grow."

"In this case, New Belgium will supply the carbon dioxide -- a byproduct of fermentation and boiler operations. The market potential for algae-based oil is large."

"The United States consumes 60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel fuel annually. At maximum, animal fats, rapeseed and soybean oil can generate 4 billion gallons, according to data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory."

"If you were to take all the oil in the U.S. and convert it to biodiesel, you'd still only make a small dent in the diesel market," said Al Darzins, group manager ot the National Bioenergy Center at NREL."

"The nice thing about algae is they have the potential of yielding about 10,000 gallons of oil per acre, whereas soybeans can produce 50 to 100 gallons per acre."

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I think Belgium Brewing is owed thanks for going 100 percent windpower and for devising a way to generate methanol from its wastewater.

To my mind if Solix doesn't perfect the process, soon thereafter some company will. Then perhaps it would be wise for all U.S. cars to be diesel and the farmers can go back to growing corn for food and fodder rather than corn liquor known to polite society as "ethanol."

Wouldn't that be a hoot ?

Science is forging ahead and is making a difference I think. Perhaps biodiesel from algae will be the magic bullet of providing us FUEL BY THE POND . . . . . . . . .

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