MAKING OIL - Spanish scientists search for fuel of the future

[ghosthunter]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110331...onmentresearch

[SIZE="4"]Spanish scientists search for fuel of the future[/SIZE]


ALICANTE, Spain (AFP) – In a forest of tubes eight metres high in eastern Spain scientists hope they have found the fuel of tomorrow: bio-oil produced with algae mixed with carbon dioxide from a factory.

Almost 400 of the green tubes, filled with millions of microscopic algae, cover a plain near the city of Alicante, next to a cement works from which the C02 is captured and transported via a pipeline to the "blue petroleum" factory.

The project, which is still experimental, has been developed over the past five years by Spanish and French researchers at the small Bio Fuel Systems (BFS) company.

At a time when companies are redoubling their efforts to find alternative energy sources, the idea is to reproduce and speed up a process which has taken millions of years and which has led to the production of fossil fuels.

"We are trying to simulate the conditions which existed millions of years ago, when the phytoplankton was transformed into oil," said engineer Eloy Chapuli. "In this way, we obtain oil that is the same as oil today."

The microalgae reproduces at high speed in the tubes by photosynthesis and from the CO2 released from the cement factory.

Every day some of this highly concentrated liquid is extracted and filtered to produce a biomass that is turned into bio-oil.

The other great advantage of the system is that it is a depollutant -- it absorbs the C02 which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.

"It's ecological oil," said the founder and chairman of BFS, French engineer Bernard Stroiazzo-Mougin, who worked in oil fields in the Middle East before coming to Spain.

"We need another five to 10 years before industrial production can start," said Stroiazzo-Mougin, who hopes to be able to develop another such project on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

"In a unit that covers 50 square kilometres, which is not something enormous, in barren regions of southern Spain, we could produce about 1.25 million barrels per day," or almost as much as the daily export of oil from Iraq, he said.

BFS, a private company, hopes to negotiate "with several countries to obtain subsidies for the installation of artificial oil fields," he said.

Other similar projects being studied in other parts of the world.

In Germany, the Swedish energy group Vattenfall last year launched a pilot project in which algae is used to absorb carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant.

US oil giant ExxonMobil plans to invest up to $600 million in research on oil produced from algae.

Companies, in particular those in the aeronautic sector, have shown keen interest in this research, hoping to find a replacement for classic oil.

[eld]

I find this hard to believe. Spain has scientists?

[niky]

Interesting way to do it... use the algae bio-oil plant as a carbon scrubber. You're going to spend for carbon-scrubbing, anyway, might as well get some value out of your investment.

[ghosthunter]

Interesting way to do it... use the algae bio-oil plant as a carbon scrubber. You're going to spend for carbon-scrubbing, anyway, might as well get some value out of your investment.

Yup, fuel from waste. Question is if the process of converting the algae to oil products would be economically feasible.

[niky]

Yup, fuel from waste. Question is if the process of converting the algae to oil products would be economically feasible.

That's always been the problem... very hard to scale it up to the industrial level... but maybe medium scale use as scrubbers... then simply harvesting them for biomass might make a little sense. At least you can cover the expense with two uses instead of one.

[badkuk]

If this were in the philippines, i don't think they need to setup anything up -- just suck out the algae from our fishponds.

[oliver1013]

Madami pa daw langis, 30 years pa ang supply sa current na pinagkukunan at mas madami pa daw sa dagat, as per a drinking buddy who is a top guy in an oil company.

[uls]

madami pa naman talaga langis. the Earth is a big place. there are still lots of places to drill

but political and economic factors limit the places where investors can drill

knowing a place has lots of oil is one thing. getting the oil out of the ground is another

dito lang sa Pinas there are places where there's oil daw

so what's stopping investors from drilling?

here's one reason --

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/03...spratlys-issue

two Chinese patrol vessels harassed a civilian Philippine vessel engaged in oil exploration at the Reed Bank, part of the Spratlys Island, also known as the Kalayaan Island Group.

The military said the two Chinese vessels told the personnel of the oil exploration vessel to cease their activities and leave supposedly because the island is Chinese territory. The military maintained that Reed Bank is well within the Philippine territory.

[hondaboot]

although i dont wanna share coz this is somewhat a sensitive info

What is Oil?

"Crude oil is the "black stuff" that comes out of the ground, also known as petroleum. It's made up of a variety of elements like carbon, hydrogen and sulfur, and originates from the remains of animals and plants that existed millions of years ago -- hence the term "fossil fuel."


in other words, oil is basically the remains of ancient living organisms be it dinosaurs, big trees or extinct ancient civilization. there is no way for us to re-create a process that took millions of years to happen.

so how does it give power? dead plants and animals and perhaps human remains have stored solar energy. and this is the energy that is extracted during combustion. so like i said, as i was saying before, all things around involves the power of the light or the sun or the stars.

so for those who can live around for a million year or so and invest in cemeteries real estate, sigurado sya magkarun ng oil dun


====

now regarding dwindling oil supply there is no such thing

the middle east had an estimated 500 billion barrels of oil down under since it started in the 1930's. and it still is supplying about 40% of the world's demand until now.

Alaska is said to have 2 Trillion Barrels of Oil down Under.
Venezuela is said to have 5 Trillion Barrels of Oil down Under.

and the next big thing in oil in the coming century will be the Russian front na hindi ko alam kung gano kadami

add all of that up, and we can have oil supply for centuries.

now that's excluding the offshore oil <those found in the ocean, covered by periodic shifting of the earth's continents.

====

now why always preach that there is dwindling supply. plain and simple, when the world or the Fed in particular started printing money out of thin air and not backed up by gold, it only made us all oil-backed.

the world gets most of its oil from the middle east of which a fraction of the proceeds of the sale is required to buy US Treasury bills <as an agreement when the US promised to build drilling plants/factories in the middle east. and as more money comes in to the US in the form of bills, then more money is printed.

so that's it. if the world will know that what we use as backing for our monetary system is as abundant as water supply (the trillion barrels of oil underneath), then our money will have no value.

create an atmosphere of that oil is as rare as gold or diamonds, then it will have value.

[uls]

what's so sensitive about that info?

What is Oil?

"Crude oil is the "black stuff" that comes out of the ground, also known as petroleum. It's made up of a variety of elements like carbon, hydrogen and sulfur, and originates from the remains of animals and plants that existed millions of years ago -- hence the term "fossil fuel."


in other words, oil is basically the remains of ancient living organisms be it dinosaurs, big trees or extinct ancient civilization. there is no way for us to re-create a process that took millions of years to happen.

so how does it give power? dead plants and animals and perhaps human remains have stored solar energy. and this is the energy that is extracted during combustion. so like i said, as i was saying before, all things around involves the power of the light or the sun or the stars.

everybody knows what crude oil is

now regarding dwindling oil supply there is no such thing

the middle east had an estimated 500 billion barrels of oil down under since it started in the 1930's. and it still is supplying about 40% of the world's demand until now.

Alaska is said to have 2 Trillion Barrels of Oil down Under.
Venezuela is said to have 5 Trillion Barrels of Oil down Under.

and the next big thing in oil in the coming century will be the Russian front na hindi ko alam kung gano kadami

add all of that up, and we can have oil supply for centuries.

now that's excluding the offshore oil <those found in the ocean, covered by periodic shifting of the earth's continents.

it's no secret there's a lot of oil under the ground

like i said, just coz you know where the oil is doesnt mean you can get it out of the ground. there are political and economic considerations which limit the places where you can drill

example yung ANWR sa Alaska. but the US government won't allow drilling there

now why always preach that there is dwindling supply. plain and simple, when the world or the Fed in particular started printing money out of thin air and not backed up by gold, it only made us all oil-backed.

the world gets most of its oil from the middle east of which a fraction of the proceeds of the sale is required to buy US Treasury bills <as an agreement when the US promised to build drilling plants/factories in the middle east. and as more money comes in to the US in the form of bills, then more money is printed.

so that's it. if the world will know that what we use as backing for our monetary system is as abundant as water supply (the trillion barrels of oil underneath), then our money will have no value.

create an atmosphere of that oil is as rare as gold or diamonds, then it will have value.

misinformation

the USD is not backed by oil

the USD is not backed by any hard asset

the USD is backed by the Federal Reserve

the Federal Reserve has a 3 trillion dollar balance sheet (rounded off)

the Federal Reserve balance sheet contains debt

USG debt, mortgage debt

the USD is backed by debt. not oil