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Interesting article regarding biodiesel made from algae oil

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  • Interesting article regarding biodiesel made from algae oil

    Maybe diesel is the way of the future afterall? Albeit an American article but could easily be applied here... if there is substance to the article of course!

    According to the National Biodiesel Board, American biodiesel production has gone from 20 million gallons to 225 million gallons in the past three years. The capacity is much higher. The U.S. has the capacity to make 1.39 billion gallons of biodiesel per year. So why aren't we making more? Simple: the overwhelming percentage of biodiesel comes from soybean oil. When soybeans get too expensive, biodiesel producers cannot make biodiesel cheaply enough to sell it, so they shut plants down.

    The foregoing economics have no effect on biodiesel made from algae oil. Because there is no demand for algae oil other than for the production of biodiesel, the only limiting factor for the production of algae biodiesel is the production of algae oil. So here is the big news: PetroSun has announced that within the next three years, it plans to start producing 2.56 Billion gallons of algae oil per year! That is 11 times America's total biodiesel production in 2006. From 1 company. In 3 years. From algae!!!

    But that is only half the news. Soy oil is currently selling for $2.81 per gallon. This is why the biodiesel industry needs tax subsidies. PetroSun plans on selling algae oil at a price to shadow petro oil plus transit cost. Today, petro oil is selling for $72/barrel. Using PetroSun's formula, it would sell its algae oil for $1.71 per gallon -- 60% of the price of soy oil!!! No subsidies needed.

    To put this in perspective, the U.S. consumes about 63 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year. (There are 42 gallons in a barrel. Figures shown are in thousands of barrels.) Therefore, in 3 years, one company is going to replace 4% of the nation's diesel with algae biodiesel.

    And remember - there are several other companies aggressively trying to do the same thing. While not at the multi-billion gallon per year producton level yet, Imperium is close. There is no reason to doubt that we are on the verge of a true energy revolution.

    http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/show ... hp?t=54178

  • #2
    does sound interesting!

    something about running the car on algae though.... doesn't sound right... could just pop out to the dams soon and scoop some off the top!

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    • #3
      In the UK a fair few people with older diesels are using a mix of new vegetable oil (SVO) and diesel.

      In the summer months I use 50% veg oil in both my Hilux and the KZJ 90 (1KZ-TE engine) dropping to 25% in the cold months.

      Veg oil is nearly 1/2 the price of diesel and it's legal to use here. (Big shock the UK tax system allowed it really)

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      • #4
        SSbaby,
        That was a good find, who knows, one day fuel may come at a respectable price.
        It it very annoying that the cost of diesel is so high when you consider it is only the waste product of oil. (We certainly need competition with the big oil companies) but then there would be some form of Government tax to take over :evil: :evil: :evil:
        We can only wish,
        Fazza
        07 Silver Ash, GXL, D4D, Auto. Lifestyle rear cargo rack. 2500 kg Tow bar with Tekonsha elec brake controller, Rear dust deflector, Mio Sat nav, (Still trying to fault the Dunlop AT20's)

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        • #5
          A good company to look up is a NZ based one called 'Aquaflow'.

          They are making biofuels for the airline industry out of algae from sewerage and set to make it big time with Virgin looking at buying in.
          3.0TD Man GXL 90 Series - TJM Bar, XD9000 Winch, Dual batteries, Lovells and Bilstien

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