wired.com — Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, figured out how to get hydrogen out of green algae by restricting sulfur from their diet. The plant cells flicked a long-dormant genetic switch to produce hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide.
Feb 23, 2006 View in Crawl 4
stever4376Feb 24, 2006
In the near future, Mutant Algae is going to be getting all the babes.
sniper6121Feb 24, 2006
Lame I submitted this story first !!!!!!!!<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/science/Mutant_Algae_Is_Hydrogen_Factory">http://digg.com/science/Mutant_Algae_Is_Hydrogen_Factory</a>
hydroxyethylFeb 24, 2006
From the article:"The work, led by plant physiologist Tasios Melis, is so far unpublished." This sentence alone scares me. I really think these 'break-through' technologies should be pier reviewed before the media declares that life as we know it is about to change. Remember cold-fusion or how about the fact that we should all be driving flying cars. If all the crap I read came true we'd be living in utopia by now. Sorry for the rant but in times like today it's easy to be a cynic.
obkenobiFeb 25, 2006
I've been hearing about this algae (and several other "miracle" algaes) for years now. What's taking so long to bring it to market if it is as successful as they say it is? Are they able to make the hydrogen yet or not? Distribute the hydrogen, then you can fuel the hydrogen-powered BMWs that have been around since the 1980s with it. THAT would get some people's attention.Oh, and let's not forget Arnold's hydrogen-powered Hummer. How has he been fueling that?So what's everyone waiting for? Hydrogen works. Biodiesel works. Nuclear works. Solar works. Wind works. There are even other ways. Yet we're still using Saudi-Texan terrorist petroleum.
adbatstoneFeb 27, 2006
Who cares? Hydrogen is vaporware. You just can't stop Peak Oil by throwing hydrogen at the problem. No Digg.
chatwithaninjaFeb 28, 2006
@gotamdI read your article/pdf, and I must say that biodiesel.org really needs to update their website. The article was only written in 2004 citing information sources from 2003. The discovery that algae produces biodiesel was made at the end of last year. So that pdf file doesn't address that at all. Interesting to read what the projections were from 3 years ago. thanks. So, if algae can produce biodiesel OR hydrogen (yeah, I know, we can do both) which is preferable? Bio diesel - why? becuase we already have cars that can run it now. we dont have to look at the future and say "some day we will have hydrogen cars and greener grass". Why not do your part now?Seriously though, how many people are yelling about better solutions but doing nothing?
graumwythereduxMay 10, 2006
There are several reasons why algae hydrogen production is not commenrcially available (or feasible) yet. Some are more technical and some are industrial problems associated with storage and transportation. As for producing hydrogen as opposed to any other organic compound, let me ask you this: Do you want even more CO2 in the atmosphere or not? If no, then hydrogen is your choice.Technical problems: 1) The proteins that make the hydrogen (hydrogenases) in general do not like oxygen. All proteins become nonfunctional after a time due to reactivity with oxygen free radicals that eventually wear the enzyme down. Researchers need to find hydrogenases that are very O2 resistant.2) The chrlorophyll many bacteria use isn't as effecient as it needs to be. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but we they need the chlorophyll to be about 5-10 times as efficient at gatherinf light.Other issues:1) Storage: Hydrogen is combustible...highly combustible. IF any space has a mere 5% hydrogen content when a spark is introduced the whole space wil ignite. That's scary. Just wait when the uncontrolled H2 production reaches a point when the whole atmosphere reaches 5%. But if it really worries you, there is some work on hydrogen batteries that seems promising. 2) I may be the only person to care, but doesn't it seem a bit immoral to genetically alter these algae strains? Their descendants won't be very happy when they figure out they were altered very distantly in their past by some nasty CO2 breathing life-form. At least they won't have to worry about Intelligent design.Oh well, they'll figure H2 production out, and when that happens, get ready. Everything will move much slower. Until they figure out soft, high-temperature magnets. Then WE will be the extra-terrestials meaning we will have more than one planet to live on.
ecacofonixMay 16, 2006
Some more inputs on Biodiesel from Algae @ <a class="user" href="http://www.castoroil.in/reference/plant_oils/uses/fuel/sources/algae/biodiesel_algae.html">http://www.castoroil.in/reference/plant_oils/uses/fuel/sources/algae/biodiesel_algae.html</a>Vic, Castor Oil Online @ <a class="user" href="http://www.castoroil.in">http://www.castoroil.in</a>
thinkbeforeJun 27, 2007
It is carbon neutral. As a (soy bean) plant grows it creates its own food by sucking C02 from the atmosphere. When the (soy bean) fuel is burned, it releases that same C02 back into the atmosphere. No harm done. Same thing with ethanol from corn or wheat. Oil is essentailly plant material that grew millions of year ago, carbon and all stored neatly underground, until it's lit on fire, and the carbon from those acient plants is re-released. Interestingly, water is also created during combustion... that's more fresh water into the atmosphere as well... you never here about that though, which is interesting because the number one greenhouse gas on the planet is water vapour...hmmm. Plant fuels are also water neutral.
thinkbeforeJun 27, 2007
...will they have underground salt mines...?
thinkbeforeJun 27, 2007
all the energy ever used on this planet has come from the sun. I dare you to think of one that isn't. Capturing energy from the sun in real time at volumes that will sustain life as we know it is the golden turkey. At its very core, Earth's economy can be boiled down to which reagions recieved the most sunlight in the distant past.
thinkbeforeJun 27, 2007
not true... it is way more efficient to generate electricity in a central location and distribute that energy to electric vehicles then to fit tiny gasoline powered generators insdie every single vehicle on the road. Plus, today's technology permits carbon sequestration which removes carbon from power plant exhaust. This technology cannot be fitted to an individual car. If all the gasoline from all the cars currently on the road was used to generate electricity at a central plant... it would go four times further.
thinkbeforeJun 27, 2007
fuel is not very viable if it cannot be stored. this is hydrogen's fatal flaw. bio fuels however hold more promise because they are general in a natural liquid state which is more in line with todays current fuel suppy and release technology. Also, it instantly supports a sector of the economy that already exists... farming. We would be better off growing enough algae to burn in a boiler and drive around in steam powered cars.
thinkbeforeJun 27, 2007
your last statement is brutally untrue. plants take in water and trace nutrients from the soil. water is hydrogen and oxygen. plants release oxygen into the air, so I GUESS they only need the hydrogen. Hmmmmm, why do plants NEED hydrogen... to make sugar, or food. IE, carbohydrates. Could it be possible that carbohydrates are made of two elements; like, maybe carbon and hydrogen? Could it be that they get the carbon they need from carbon dioxide in the air? Well, c02 is carbon and oxygen, so there's some more oxygen they don't need. Well, I guess that's why sugar is flammable and you are too, it's also why plants piss oxygen. It's give and take in carbon terms, and it's equal.