It’s plentiful, it’s homegrown, and it could help clean up the environment while powering our cities. The idea of transforming algae into a fuel is a reality. Nowadays there are numerous implementations of algae into the renewable energy market.
“Sargassum muticum” and “Undaria pinnatifida” are the names of two kinds of algae brought by the ships coming from Japan and the Sargassi sea. The algea grows over the seaport of Venice, causing problems for gondolas and ferry boats. But today it could be turned into a resource.
Italy recently announced a 200 million euro eco-friendly project to harvest the prolific seaweed that lines Venice’s canals and transform it into emissions-free energy. The idea is to set up a power plant fuelled by algae, the first facility of its kind in Italy. The plant, to be built in collaboration with renewable energy services company Enalg, will be operative in two years and will produce 40 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to half of the energy required by the entire city centre of Venice.
The algae will be cultivated in laboratories and put in plastic cylinders where water, carbon dioxide, and sunshine can trigger photosynthesis. The resulting biomass will be treated further to produce a fuel to turn turbines. The carbon dioxide produced in the process will be fed back to the algae, resulting in zero emissions from the plant. “Venice could represent the beginning of a global revolution of energy and renewable resources. Our goals are to achieve the energetic self-sufficiency for the seaport and to reduce CO2 emissions, including those one produced by the docked ships”, says the president of the seaport of Venice Authority, Paolo Costa.
The idea sounds good and seems to open great possibilities for zero emission energy production; Venice could represent the first step of a real innovative evolution even if there are still some doubts about the huge amount of money required for this project and the authorization needed to built the plant.
For more information about biomass energy, see also Solena Group.
Image credit: Kevin via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
I don’t understand one thing though.
Why cultivate new algae in laboratories?
Can’t we use the algae that is currently found in the venetian water?
Good point. The headline says they will harvest it from the sea, the article says they will grow it in test tubes. This is why I don’t read newspapers. On the internet you can always point out errors in a comment field, which tends to make authors try to do a better job next time. Read “The Prospects for Algae Biodiesel Dim” on the R-squared blog if you are interested in some reality to go with your entertainment.
http://robertrapier.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/the-prospects-for-algal-biodiesel-dim/
But Venice is still sinking.
The company will use a part of the algae of Venice canals but, because of the amount required for the plant, another part will be cultivated in an area of 8-12 hectars in order to increase their concentration for cubic meters.
Thanks for the suggestion Russ..
Venice will have sunk by the time they get it up an running! There are millions of different kinds of algae – keeping the most efficient ones pure and growing is hard. dont expect this to last no harm in trying and given the amount of emissions required to built it – why not spend it on efficienies instead.
Russ makes an excellent point about the capital investment required to grow algae in laboratories, which is much too high for an operation that will simply burn its product. Also, the Solena group’s website makes no mention of how they plan to remove the massive amounts of NOx that will be produced along with the syngas due to the protein content of the biomass, leading me to believe that they left this serious issue out of their design.
The research is worth a try. Yes it may have flaws but it is a great avenue to explore. Aren’t there other algae fuels being researched?
hollybarbo.wordpress.com
A simple calculation shows that the plant must produce algae with an energy content many times the amount of the solar energy incident on the plant area (if we consider a 10 hectares cultivation area).
I think that the first law of thermodynamics will not agree with this project.
Do you know who will pay for this project?
Lab algae strains are selected for high oil and hydrocarbon content. If they plan to feed those strains with lagoon water it could removed excess nutrients from the canals and clean them up further.
I spoke with Yves Bannel, the executive Vice President of the Solena Group, and his science adviser/project manager for the Venice project. They are NOT harvesting algae from the canals to use in the plant.
Instead, they sampled lagoon water, cultured algae species found there, and found a particular species of diatom that works well for their purposes.
They have isolated the diatom to be cultivated in their system of tubes, once they’re installed at Marghera. So they’re using a local species as feedstock for the plasma gasification process, but they won’t be dredging canals for it.
Hope this clears up some of the confusion.
Another important point from a different algae researcher I talked to concerned the energy you can get from macroalgae, like seaweed, versus microalgae like the ones the Venice project will grow in tubes.
“Sargassum and Undaria are not high energy density algae…Probably wouldn’t have anywhere the yield potential that microalgae would.”
Ya’ll understand the particulars about the kinds of algae, which I don’t, but maybe this can be one answer to the chicken manure problem in the Chesapeake Bay.
While I doubt algae is going to be the world’s immediate miracle fuel (although that would be wonderful), this idea certainly deserves attention. It would certainly be a cleaner/cheaper option if the those eco-scientists in Venice ever start this trend. This could, of course, mean great options for the rest of the world as well. The globe will have to keep its eyes open and stay tuned as those in the gondola capitol keep experimenting. I watched an excellent summary video on all of this at newsy.com. It’s worth looking at:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/from_scum_to_power_source/
Simply not permissible! With no toxic fumes emitted, and the canals actually being cleaned up, we will have irreversibly altered an Historic Treasure of the world, and this is a travesty on the Arts world and cultural world we cannot permit! – Keep them on oil until the last damn drop is sold at the highest price the market can bear, or we will protest, stop grants, and take out vengeance on their good name in advertisements, by not including them! We the oil stock holders have the right, after waiting so long with our holdings, and conniving, and scheming for a strangle hold on the worlds markets, we have the right, dammit, to a killing!, a financial cascade of golden coins as oil runs out! It is unfair to deprive us this way, and we will not take it lying down! Beware the ire of the oil baron he will be upon you and your wallet like a scourge, a veritable plague, and soon! we will seek revenge for the algae fools of the world, who dare convert sunlight into oil! Oil we don’t own! dammit! we will infect their little bugs with bugs of our own design, wait and see! Environmental asshvles!
I have never been there but I have seen the results of algae and if this can get help remove even some of this I think it will be great.
The World has had enough of those who only want profits for themselves.
I think whether or not the algea biomass project is a white elephant or not, we all are responsible for cleaning up the mess we all left behind. It’s well worth to look for an alternatives rather than stick to one source.
Some people are just too narrow minded to look for alternatives fuel source, such as algea. I think it pack double bonuses as it will be so cheap when the technology is matured & clean up the contaminants in the water source.
The big oil company just afraid that if we bring it to the people, they will lose all their investment.
Just imagine an algea plant is set up in China to recover oil from their algea infested rivers and power up their diesel vehicle & power generator for the rural area people. The price will be so cheap since the raw material(pollutant/nutrient) is F.O.C. All you need is to invest in mechanical process & machinary to harvest the algea to produce oil.
There’s a community in New Zealand of around 18,000 people using Algae to treat raw sewage and produce biofuel and water as outputs. This is brilliant!
So, is this how they generate power in the planet Aqua in the anime, Aria?
Nice post. Looks like wind power is really starting to get some serious consideration in Australia now.
There might be a number of ways to get process plant machinery for your small business but one of the best ways to go looking online. It will provide you an inventory of suppliers in your metropolis or country. You’ll be able to contact them and ask for price quotes. A gross sales specialist from the actual seller will go to and perceive your online business requirements in terms of functional and technical. In case, you end up incapable enough to finalize the deal, it’s most well-liked to take assist from a process plant professional.
The one common aspect of life,religion or politics is BALANCE. is algae the only answer? no but it is part of the answer? yes.we are facing a global problem with carbon. what does algae feed off of? carbon. water,sun and cardon. makes sense to me.How did we get all the oil we have today? Same process. sounds like recycling to me. As for it being cost effective, did you know that linoleum flooring, when it was first invented was only for the rich? It was very expensive, until the found away to mass produce it. now its only for the cheap. This is the first step and a great one.
Nearly all vigor comes from the oxidation of Corbin .
This generates CO2 is that earth-friendly .