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Comment count is 22
Hooker - 2013-12-19

We found a new source of crude oil! Party time! Woo!


mouser - 2013-12-19

Better that than corn.


Jet Bin Fever - 2013-12-19

I studied this in one of my chemistry classes as a bonus project. It was really interesting and the chemistry makes sense.


Kabbage - 2013-12-19

ffffffffffffff I really hope this becomes viable because algae fuel as a concept is cool as hell.


gravelstudios - 2013-12-19

I assume this should be carbon neutral, since the algae have to absorb carbon in order to grow.


gravelstudios - 2013-12-19

Oh, forgot.


SolRo - 2013-12-19

nope.

takes energy to convert to oil, then more energy to refine the oil into gas.

on an industrial scale, might also have to factor in energy of transporting algae to conversion reactor, then transporting the oil to a refinery.


but still better than turning food into fuel.


Jet Bin Fever - 2013-12-19

Depends on the algae and how they keep it. Theoretically, the blue-green algae should take in CO2 and give off O2 just like any other photosynthesizing organism.


SteamPoweredKleenex - 2013-12-20

As opposed to the costs of transporting oil from other countries, bombing the shit out of them so oil companies can get sweetheart deals/tax subsidies to then transport, refine, and sell an already profitable product?

One of our major exports right now is gasoline (in October it was about 3 million barrels per day). Think about that the next time someone in the oil industry whines about regulation or high costs at the pump: There's no shortage of gas, they're just making more money exporting the stuff.

If this becomes a large-scale operation, I don't expect a huge dip in prices and so on, but at least maybe we can stop sending so many military personnel overseas to make sure Exxon can reap billions in profits and get a tax refund.


SolRo - 2013-12-20

the question was about its carbon neutrality, not if it's less or more evil than big oil, stupid.


EvilHomer - 2013-12-20

Bombing runs are a major source of carbon. Even if algae is not strictly carbon neutral, it's probably a good deal less carbon-intense than Big Oil.

At least until we have to invade Estonia to get at their algae-rich swamps.


Old_Zircon - 2013-12-20

Humans aren't carbon neutral.


SteamPoweredKleenex - 2013-12-22

@SolRo: Airplanes, tanks, and naval vessels run on unicorn farts in your world, then? Oil tankers float on a sea of good wishes and kitten kisses? Deploying our military takes no more fuel than an apple pie and stirring music wrapped in a copy of the Constitution?

"Stupid," indeed.


Cube - 2013-12-19

Department of Evil?


memedumpster - 2013-12-19

Can't wait to see how the industrialized power structure rises up against this one. Algae-gate is going to sink a future president.


EvilHomer - 2013-12-19

I'm looking forward to PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Algae.

I think I'll get a headstart by using only organic, free-range algae for my fuel.


baleen - 2013-12-20

More than the industrial scale, I'm interested in how this can be sourced into smaller outlets. A lot of people already make their own diesel, but diesel needs food. If you could just grow ponds full of algae that could be converted in a neighborhood's worth of gas, that'd be awesome.


Old_Zircon - 2013-12-20

One of the things I find promising about this is that, since the end product is crude oil, the petroleum industry wouldn't be rendered completely obsolete by it. The source of the crude would be different, but from refining on the existing oil industry infrastructure would still be relevant, so it might be easier to convince them to let this happen.


dairyqueenlatifah - 2013-12-19

I wouldn't be surprised if we never hear anything about this again.


oddeye - 2014-03-05

1) It doesn't work
or
2) Big Oil squashes them


Rodents of Unusual Size - 2013-12-20

Maybe we can eventually dredge up the toxic algae that's killing the bottom of the ocean floor after we dredge it looking for fish (it's killing the ocean floor, btw)


Gypsy_Dildo_Factory - 2013-12-28

According to some article we might be able get as much Uranium as we need from ocean water... I want to see Lord Humongous and his gang, I mean,, I want about 7.5 billion dead or so. I personally like nukes because it was my minor subject in college-- and "the nuclear option" I hear is rising in popularity but there are challenges to overcome, such as how to just kill people and minimize collateral harm to Earth*, which is impossible unless you get everyone to migrate into the maximum land area densities possible and use enormous bombs such that otherwise so-called fallout is impelled so high in a column into the ionosphere, exosphere where it can decay in the time it's suspended there, at the same time blocking the sun's heat to a degree or 2 which in turn helps out the ice caps-- polar ice melt being a problem which, scientists say, carbon emission control will not stop given the most optimistic forecast of its eventuality. Religious fervor and television and glossy magazine advertising will cause mostly genetically undesirable to accumulate in these C-STARb* bomb megazone-camps. So it's all figured out now! Leave your troubles on the doorstep...

As for Lrd. Humongous he can HAVE that gasoline: that juice. A stand up guy-- his annotated autobiography reveals that he spent the first half of his life alone in a city library protecting the books from raiders who wanted to burn them as fuel-- when he could not even read himself (until later when he met Lord J-----d, the man with the pistol, who lost his fingers. By him he was first educated thereafter becoming the great orator, strategist, shakespeare-quoting leader)

*there is such a thing as a neutron bomb but it's just a small, bastard little hydrogen bomb with no outer shell of U238, thus concussively innefficient and comparatively big in fallout. They're just a phantasmagoric invention for killing Russkies through tank armor and the like. They're mis-portrayed in entertainment media.

**this is a working title (C for Carbon, "Tsar bomb" into "star b" by letter transposition, concatenation then as i think "starb" means "died" in German-- I know this is too cute but just thought it up now)


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