Quote:
Originally Posted by gpsman1
Yeah.... but you need to "feed" the Algae something... Algae doesn't just grow on trees you know... or does it...?
Fadi... I have visited a corn ethanol plant just like the one featured in that T.V. show. ( I saw the show last month. ) If you have any particular questions... I'll try to answer. ( actually, back in 2006 I worked at a place that made ethanol... it's all the same basic process no matter where you go ) And I can tell you no part of the corn is wasted.
New plants have zero liquid discharge into the environment, ( they only "lose" water to evaporation...) and there is zero solid waste ( other than those pizza boxes... ya know... "lunch" ) going from the plants to landfills. And the REALLY REALLY good newer plants also have zero CO2 ( or close ) discharge. All the CO2 is captured and made into dry ice, or trucked away as refridgerated liquid for eventual carbonated soda. -John |
Speaking only to the algae issue: Algae is pretty much like corn in that it makes its own food because a lot of species are photosynthetic. In one sense they're important for O2 production. I guess with some tinkering of their DNA they might produce ethanol as waste product, as opposed to the usual O2.
But not to worry, we need ethanol more than O2.