Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches In 1974, the Polish geneticist Waclaw Szybalski introduced the term “synthetic biology” which has become one of the hottest new fields of research (Wiki). Wiki defines the term as “a new area of biological research that combines science and engineering in order to design and build (”synthesize”) novel biological functions and systems.” For those of you who are still with me, “Where’s the beef?” Here it is:
MarketWatch ran an article yesterday, 11/17/08 titled “Solazyme Showcases World’s First Algal-Based Renewable Diesel at Governor’s Global Climate Summit.” What Solazyme has done, is through use of synthetic biology techniques, produced a commercial grade biodiesel from algae. I have blogged about algae-based fuel in the past, and now it is reality. I suggest astute readers of this blog become acquainted with the field of synthetic biology, and algae-based fuels also. Who knows, they may be in your car’s tank in the near future. There’s a video clip below about the company. Hank
This is really amazing. If this can become popular and catch on this will have a tremendous future. These guys are truly innovative by creating disel out of algae which is huge because not only can will it have a positive effect on the environment but will be a cheap source of fuel if they get the method perfected. I think this will be better than any potiental alternative fuel sources.
Thats cool, this technology has been around for a while. Now they just need powerful lobbyists to compete with corn farmers.
Wow, this is amazing. If they could bring this “really high quality bio-diesel” to mass production and make it cheap enough for the average consumer it could completely revolutionize the direction in which the car industry is going rather than towards electricity.
Thats pretty good. I have an old 240D that i think would like some of that bio-diesel.
A few things they left out are how much area is needed to produce a significant amount of bio diesel. i.e. if you need a square mile to produce a gallon of diesel, well then its not as cool (although hank has blogged about some technologies that could help solve that). They also left out performance and gas millage calculations (which they may not have known yet as of that video, but they should have been able to drive the take till its empty and see how far they got). They said it performed very well, but define very well please.
all in all, a very cool intermediate fuel,
Jim
This is a very cool idea, but in my experience with Biodiesel you don’t get the performance you get out of standard diesel. I own a 2005 Chevrolet 2500 HD Duramax which runs nearly 60 lbs of boost and over 550 hp. I don’t believe I would run this fuel in my truck, but for standard vehicles that are just trying to find a cheap and friendly fuel this would be great.
this is definately a great idea.
I think there are two thigns to consider.
first is the lack of oil. we hav eto figure out a new sort of energy to run mobiles such as this. But another thing is enviornment. If we just figure out an alternative way to produce energy, it would not be very friendly towards the eco system.
nonetheless, this is a great form of oil.
Awesome idea, new innovative ideas for oil creation are amazing. While i haven’t been the biggest fan of biodiesel, me Jon/Rochelle’s recent project on Got Grease showed me that biodiesel is actually really helpful especially when couped with cars.
This is so good! Its great to know that such great efforts are being made all over the world to find alternative fuels…! This is not only helping solve energy crises but also help protect the environment…I agree that algae-based fuel is very innovative…but how expensive will it be? Solar Cars, Algae fueled cars, electric cars, E85…alternative fuels are on the roll!
I believe that is the future of oil in this country, how can you go wrong with a product that is environmentally friendly, and so easy to get a hold of? I also believe that this type of technology can bring down fuel prices substantially.
It is quite amazing the techniques we are utilizing to find alternative fuels. The funny thing is that the facts have been around for years; we have known that the oil we currently use has been created from materials such as algae over 100 million years ago. It’s amazing that we have never thought of this alternative earlier. However, we lacked the technology and/or intelligence to manufacture it. This is going to play a critical role in the potential production of this fuel as it has with many cellulosic ethanols. Simply we lack the technology to produce it efficiently. Yet it seems that we are on the right track and Solazyme has taken the right steps to production. Hopefully with a little fine-tuning, algal-based diesel will become more prevalent and cost-efficient to make it to the consumer market. I know I’m definitely looking forward to its development and institution!
This seems almost to good to be true!! I can’t wait until this product comes into the market and I am sure it will be very welcomed to all of us who are sick and tired of paying outrageous fuel prices!! This is a great way to use technology and innovation to better society.
This technology is amazing and could possibly be the future of energy.
I’m shocked by this technology. It will be awesome if this replaces our oil.
Well, although the research may still seem in the development phase, the fact that they’ve already driven a car with this diesel fuel around San Francisco is pretty amazing and I think a completely viable idea. Now all they have to do is get clearance from the government to create algae farms and oil refineries and i think we could supply a great number of our oil ourselves if not all of it. Of course, oil is a global commodity which means we’re required to sell some of it overseas, but hey, maybe we’ll become as rich as the Saudis
What an incredible technology. I can’t wait until Solazyme or another company like it begins large-scale manufacture and distribution of their product. This is one of those “disruptive technologies” that we learned about. I’m interested in what the comparison between fossil fuel and algae fuel efficiencies are, etc. I think we’re about to enter a new tech age, with this fuel involved in it.
This new technology is great. I think making oil out of algea is a great idea, and believe that this will be better than any other fuel alternatives!
This really seems like it could be the future of bio fuel in the world!! It seems to be comparable almost exactly to what is being used now, if not more efficient. The only thing I didn’t really hear them talk about is cost, but it seems that it couldn’t be any worse than what we have already experienced here in the United States.
Ok, am I the only person that was distracted by the music? Haha At first I was thinking who is singing in the middle of their shoot??? Anyway, this is a pretty interesting idea. I’m not sure if I missed something, or if I”m just not that bright, but does it take a special kind of make/model to use this algea fuel or can any vehicle adapt to it? Regardless it’s a great technology!
This is an excellent idea! I think this would be an excellent thing to invest in because the alternative-fuel-craze going on right now.
Elisa - yes, at the minimum it would require a diesel powered car. They did not detail how this fuel differs from normal diesel fuel, but at the very most some fuel lines would have to be replaced as some bio-diesels (such as waste veggie oil) can be corrosive to the rubber that made up the lines for dino-oil based diesel fuel.
gas engines are out of the question.
Jim
This idea will hang around for a while before it gets fully operated. The question remains whether it will create efficient combustion like the gasoline and diesel did. Overall, it is a very creative idea for energy crisis problem.
I’m amazed by this! It would be great to one day completely replace oil.
I wonder why they havent used this before? If it truly is such an amazing bio-diesel, it should have no trouble replacing its less efficient corn-based competitor.
It’s a promising idea that could solve our energy problems but I’ve seen tons of those over the past three years and have yet to see any tangible results. After all, I still put gas in my car when I drive. Where’s the biodesil?
For those of you who wonder where I’ve seen those promising ideas I implore you to read Popular Science Magazine. It’s a fun read and extremely informing, just like Popular Mechanics.
Why aren’t we using this? I almost don’t believe it.
This is insane. Having a simple algae to drive a car!? Something that I always thought that was so useless became one of the most important plants on earth! Who would have ever thought! Well obviously those guys but that’s not the point. This is crazy.
this is really fascinating. It reminds me of an article I read a bit ago probably during the summer in one of my popular science magazines about E. Coli and oil. The link is here: http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-04/breeding-oil-bug
I think this whole idea is really cool and can really help improve a lot of things
There has to be some sort of catch.. I don’t understnad how this product could be out there and people haven’t taken full advantage of it yet. I don’t know woh thinks of stuff like this, but this is amazing!
I cant wait until this product come to the market and catches on. Don’t know if there are any problems, but it looks like a pretty cool concept.
This is such a neat and unique idea!! I’ve never herd of doing anything like this!! This type of oil just seems like its better for the environmement anyways. And I think just about everyone who cares about the environment would def. take advantage of this oil for sure!
Cool idea. Mildly ironic considering a huge enemy of diesel fuel is algae and bacteria.
Glad to see that alternative energy solutions are becoming more plausible.
This one seems to have a lot of potential.
Like the alternative solution especially since algae can keep increasing in size with time.
it seems like an amazing opportunity - why hasn’t anyone jumped on it more?!
In time more alternatives will surface hopefully this could become one of them
I think that it is great that we have the brains and the technology to do things like this. I only wish I was intelligent enough to do something like this. I think that there is a very good chance that this will become widely used throughout the world here very soon.
I think the idea of synthetic biology is a very cool idea. Why not take science and use it to try and maximize the resources we have here.