Omega produces improved ecosystem conditions, renewable biofuels, and clean water through the use of waste products and non-invasive algae

AT: No tradeoff with corn

Algae market stuff

Algae can take up market shares, now is the time

CBO Financial 12/15/11, “Commercialized Algae Production: Turning Gunk into Global Change” http://www.cbofinancial.com/news_events/newsletters/2011-12-15/algae_educational.html

Algae oil is one of the world's most renewable and sustainable biofuel feedstocks.¶ While nutraceuticals can help change an individual's health, commercial algae production really has a chance to transform our planet. Biofuels have received a lot of attention lately; however, some of the issues raised about the true sustainability, particularly of corn-based ethanol production, are concerning. Corn production is hard on the environment, polluting waterways, degrading soil, and causing soil erosion. Corn also is a relatively slow-growing plant, and produces a relatively low-energy feedstock for biofuels. Most importantly, taking acreage out of food production and using it for ethanol corn has raised food prices, and there is a growing awareness of the conflict of food versus fuel.¶ As compared to corn, algae grows quickly, can be grown in tanks on otherwise nonproductive land, and potentially even be used to clean the environment, feeding on waste CO2 that would otherwise pollute the environment. Compared to crops used to produce vegetable oil, algae can generate up to 50 times the amount of oil per acre. It can be processed into a number of different biofuels, including biodiesel. Biodiesel is an exciting industry because it can fuel a conventional diesel engine, burns cleaner than conventional diesel, and can actually prolong the life of the engine.¶ Algae production commercialization offers an exciting opportunity for investors.¶ In the coming years, as the world looks more and more toward truly sustainable options to feed our insatiable appetite for energy, the algae biofuels industry is expected to explode. The market is currently crowded by small, nimble companies who have each developed their own processes and technology, all vying for their share of this new space. At this point in its development, the industry has developed a wide variety of different algae production methods, with varying levels of scalability and funding needs. The status of today’s market provides an exciting opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an industry that promises to be not only economically rewarding, but environmentally indispensable.¶ As an Algae Project Developer, the CBO Financial team applies innovative funding strategies and customized planning so that algal projects can reach full-scale commercialization. We’ve identified a number of inventive algae project funding opportunities, and, in particular, we’re applying our extensive NMTC (New Market Tax Credit) knowledge toward this market. We’re creating a new model for the revitalization of low-income communities by combining the local economic benefits o NMTC projects with the global environmental benefits of renewable energy.

Algae set to take over market, 7-10 years with investment

Hannon et al 10, Michael Hannon, Javier Gimpel, Miller Tran, Beth Rasala, and Stephen Mayfield, “Biofuels from algae: challenges and potential” NIHPA San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology, University of California San Diego, Division of Biology, La Jolla, CA, USA http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Hannon%20M%5Bauth%5D

We have discussed strategies to make algae-based fuels costs competitive with petroleum. Bioprospecting is of importance to identify algal species that have desired traits (e.g. high lipid content, growth rates, growth densities and/or the presence of valuable co-products), while growing on low-cost media. Despite the potential of this strategy, the most likely scenario is that bioprospecting will not identify species that are cost competitive with petroleum, and subsequent genetic engineering and breeding will be required to bring these strains to economic viability. The range of potential for engineering algae is just beginning to be realized, from improving lipid biogenesis and improving crop protection, to producing valuable enzyme or protein co-products. No sustainable technology is without its challenges but blind promotion of those technologies without honest consideration of the long-term implications may lead to the acceptance of strategies whose long-term consequences outweigh their short-term benefits. We have presented what we view as the most important current and upcoming challenges of algae biofuels but, as with any new industry, the more we learn the more we realize that challenges exist that we had not foreseen. Even given these uncertainties, we believe that fuel production from algae can be cost competitive and widely scalable and deployable in the next 7–10 years, but only if we continue to expand our understanding of these amazing organisms as we expand our ability to engineer them for the specific task of developing a new energy industry.

Algae Co-products make it competitive with petroleum even in early stages of development

Hannon et al 10, Michael Hannon, Javier Gimpel, Miller Tran, Beth Rasala, and Stephen Mayfield, “Biofuels from algae: challenges and potential” NIHPA San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology, University of California San Diego, Division of Biology, La Jolla, CA, USA http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Hannon%20M%5Bauth%5D

The extraction and sale of natural or engineered co-products along with algae oil could¶ positively impact the economics of algae-based biofuels. If the infrastructure for algae fuel¶ production is in place, expansion of these facilities to include protein or other coproduct¶ purification can be added at a fraction of total cost. The postprocessing residue from algae¶ oil extraction consists primarily of proteins and carbohydrates. Conventional use of these¶ by-products might include anaerobic digestion to generate methane gas [163], combustion¶ for energy production or, perhaps, use as animal feed, although algae are not presently sold¶ as animal feed outside of the aquaculture industry. The high protein content of most¶ microalgae and their amino acid composition makes them suitable for human and animal¶ nutrition. The cyanobacteria Arthrospira (i.e., Spirulina) has a 60–71% dry-weight protein¶ content, and is widely used as a food supplement for humans, cattle, poultry, aquarium fish,¶ ornamental birds and horses [168]. Algae biomass is also an essential source of nutrients for¶ fish, mollusk and shrimp in the aquaculture industry. The most popular algae genera are¶ Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, Pavlova, Navicula, Nitzschia, Chaetoceros,¶ Skeletonema, Phaeodactylum and Thalassiosira [169,170]. Chlorella is also regarded as an¶ excellent nutrient source for humans but it also produces a high valuable molecule, β-1,3-¶ glucan. This polysaccharide is a recognized immunostimulator, a free radical scavenger and¶ a reducer of blood lipids [171].¶ Given their diverse nature, microalgae can produce a wide variety of nutrients and¶ secondary metabolites that are beneficial for human or animals. Valuable current or potential¶ co-products include carotenoids, and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs).¶ Microalgae can also produce a wide variety of useful carotenoids, such as lutein, zeaxanthin,¶ lycopene, bixin, β-carotene and astaxanthin. However, commercial production is mainly¶ confined to the latter two [172–174]. β-carotene is produced by the marine algae D. salina,¶ which can accumulate up to 14% of its dry weight as this pigment under stress conditions¶ [175]. This carotenoid is an orange pigment, widely used as a natural food colorant. It is also¶ Hannon et al. Page 16¶ Biofuels. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 August 8.¶ NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript strong antioxidant and a precursor of vitamin A [176,177]. The main producer of¶ astaxanthin is the freshwater algae, Haematococcus pluvialis, which can accumulate up to¶ 4% of its dry weight as this pigment [178]. Astaxanthin is a red pigment, mainly used as a¶ feed additive for coloring salmon, carp, red seabream, shrimp and chickens. It is also used as¶ a food supplement for humans, given that it is an extraordinary antioxidant [179,180].¶ Microalgae can also synthesize LCPUFAs, including omega-3 and omega-6. These are¶ essential for humans and marine animals but they are only available in a very limited¶ selection of foods [181,182]. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is an omega-3 fatty acid¶ commercially produced by Crypthecodinium and Schizochytrium for infant formulas and¶ aquaculture feeds. Algae can also efficiently produce other important LCPUFAs but are¶ currently not the main commercial source of these fatty acids. These LCPUFAs include¶ eicosapentanoic acid (produced by Nannochloropsis, Phaeodactylum and Nitzschia),¶ arachidonic acid (produced by Porphyridium) and γ-linoleic acid (produced by Arthrospira)¶ [183].¶ Additional minor commercial products from microalgae are phycobiliproteins, used as food¶ and research dyes (Arthrospira and Porphyridium) [184,185], extracts for cosmetics¶ (Nannochloropsis and Dunaliella) [186], and stable isotope biomolecules used for research¶ (Phaeodactylum and Arthrospira) [187].¶ Microalgae can synthesize many other unique molecules with commercial potential, such as¶ toxins, vitamins, antibiotics, sterols, lectins, mycosporine-like amino acids, halogenated¶ compounds and polyketides. In some instances, the expression of molecules that improve¶ crop protection may also have pharmaceutical value. For further reading see [183,188–192].¶ These natural co-products have potential to provide a bridge while the economics of algal¶ biofuels improve. Early on, owing to the large market for fuels and companies establishing¶ niches, it is most likely that diverse coproduct-producing strains will be used, rather than an¶ optimal single strain. In addition, many of these co-products will be coextracted with the¶ lipids using current strategies, decreasing their value as a coproduct. Improving extraction¶ techniques or dedicating a percentage of the algal crop to these higher value products¶ depending on demand (e.g., with terrestrial agriculture) may further close the economic gap¶ between petroleum and algae biofuels

New research on algae use makes it competitive in the fuels market

Hannon et al 10, Michael Hannon, Javier Gimpel, Miller Tran, Beth Rasala, and Stephen Mayfield, “Biofuels from algae: challenges and potential” NIHPA San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology, University of California San Diego, Division of Biology, La Jolla, CA, USA http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Hannon%20M%5Bauth%5D

In addition to improved lipid production, other strain-specific improvements are being¶ considered, including crop protection, salt tolerance, growth at high pH, improved nutrient¶ utilization and traits that lead to more efficient harvesting, such as flocculation. The¶ economic impact from these improvements will allow for decrease operational costs. For¶ example, flocculation will allow improved harvesting by making it easier to concentrate¶ algae, decreasing the cost of water extraction. A variety of algae have been characterized for¶ their fouling of marine equipment. Some of the qualities that cause fouling include rapid¶ growth on specific substrates. Further studies of these attributes may lead to improved¶ flocculation and extraction, by understanding how and why these species grow and adhere to¶ these specific substrates. These data may allow these traits to be exploited, so that algae will¶ aggregate after a specific induction event or to a specific surface.¶ In general, the literature on algal strain improvements is minimal; however, extrapolation¶ from successes in other system may provide a blueprint for some of these improvements.¶ One such improvement is better salt tolerance conferred through expression of¶ glycinebetaine and polyamines in terrestrial plants [166,167]. Despite the potential value of¶ these improvements, their real value must be determined experimentally in each species.

Bioengineering makes algae biofuels competitive

Hannon et al 10, Michael Hannon, Javier Gimpel, Miller Tran, Beth Rasala, and Stephen Mayfield, “Biofuels from algae: challenges and potential” NIHPA San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology, University of California San Diego, Division of Biology, La Jolla, CA, USA http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Hannon%20M%5Bauth%5D

Identification of an ideal, unmodified biofuel organism that fits into the established¶ infrastructure for harvesting, extraction and purification, and is economically viable, is a¶ possibility; however, a much more likely scenario is the identification of a variety of species¶ that each have one or a few of these desirable traits. These traits, when engineered into a¶ single strain, may be sufficient to result in an economically viable production strain. In¶ addition to strain improvements in fuel production, using genes identified from other algae¶ species may allow for improved expression of heterologous proteins, which either have high¶ value as a protein coproduct or enzymatically produce a high-value coproduct. Both of these¶ strategies are being investigated to improve the economics of algal biofuels.

Use as foodstock makes algae biofuel able to replace corn

Lum, Kim, Lei 12/21/13, Krystal Lum, Jonggun Kim, Xin Gen Lei are writing for Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, Published as “Dual potential of microalgae as a sustainable biofuel feedstock and animal feed” in the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology 2013, 4:53 http://www.jasbsci.com/content/4/1/53#

Marine microalgae sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis, and may be used to produce biogas including methane and hydrogen via anaerobic processing [13-15]. While certain species of microalgae were recognized in the 1940s to yield high amounts of cellular lipids under selective growth pressures, it was not until the 1950’s when algae were viewed as a potential energy source, and were tested for methane gas production via anaerobic digestion of their cell carbohydrates [16,17]. The flexibility and(or) adaptivity of microalgal species to water and cultural conditions allows us to spare fresh water and arable land for crop production [18]. The land use efficiency of microalgae for biofuel production, grown with 30% oil content by weight, was 130 and 338 times greater than the conventional biodiesel feedstock soybean and corn, respectively [6].¶ While optimal growth conditions for microalgae are species-specific, photoautotrophic cultivation of these single cell species at large scales for biofuel and co-products depends on the technical and economic feasibility. At the present time, the photoautotrophic production of microalgae is marginally cost-effective only for generating value-added co-products or feed additives used in aquaculture [19,20]. In such productions, microalgae are grown in the presence of light within constructions such as open raceway ponds. To extract the lipids, microalgae are first de-watered. The concentrated biomass is subsequently processed to optimize the solvent extraction through cell disruption, particle size reduction, and drying [21]. The remaining microalgae skeleton after lipid extraction is the so-called de-fatted microalgal biomass to be used as an animal feed. Without the presumed feed application, the commercial microalgae cultivation and processing for biofuel production [22,23] remains largely cost-ineffective. Therefore, the feed application of the de-fatted biomass would not only create a new source of animal feed to mitigate the current competition with human food supply, but also help make the biofuel production of microalgae economically feasible.

Algae fuel/food has huge market potential

Lum, Kim, Lei 12/21/13, Krystal Lum, Jonggun Kim, Xin Gen Lei are writing for Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, Published as “Dual potential of microalgae as a sustainable biofuel feedstock and animal feed” in the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology 2013, 4:53 http://www.jasbsci.com/content/4/1/53#

The use of microalgal biomass in animal feed will not only improve human and animal food security, but also facilitate cost-effective biofuel production and reduces greenhouse gas production of agriculture [6,79-81]. Recent estimates indicate that 30% of the global algal production is used by the animal feed industry [5], amounting to a fast-growing $300 million in retail value [82]. Pragmatic species-specific large-scale algae refinery techniques must be devised to reduce the cost of the biomass production. It is necessary to determine limiting factors of the microalgal biomass that hinder its digestion and utilization by animals. Novel technology should be explored to improve microalgal nutrient utilization, and their long term nutritional and metabolic effects should be assessed. In addition, the production of DHA from microalgal biomass alone is a rapidly growing market. The last estimate is that approximately 300 tons is produced to generate $1.5 billion market value each year [72,82]. However, the tremendous potential of using the microalgal biomass in producing DHA/EPA enriched eggs, meats, and milk for improving human health is yet to be fully explored.

Algae tradeoff

Algae trades off with corn ethanol, more efficient

Herro 1/1/8, Alana, staff writer for WorldWatch Institute, “Better Than Corn? Algae Set to Beat Out Other Biofuel Feedstocks” http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5391

Forget corn, sugar cane, and even switchgrass. Some experts believe that algae is set to eclipse all other biofuel feedstocks as the cheapest, easiest, and most environmentally friendly way to produce liquid fuel, reports Kiplinger’s Biofuels Market Alert. “It is easy to get excited about algae,” says Worldwatch Institute biofuels expert Raya Widenoja. “It looks like such a promising fuel source, especially if it’s combined with advances in biodiesel processing.”¶ The inputs for algae are simple: the single-celled organisms only need sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to grow. They can quadruple in biomass in just one day, and they help remove carbon from the air and nitrogen from wastewater, another environmental benefit. Some types of algae comprise more than 50 percent oil, and an average acre of algae grown today for pharmaceutical industries can produce 5,000 gallons (19,000 liters) of biodiesel each year. By comparison, an average acre of corn produces 420 gallons (1,600 liters) of ethanol per year, and an acre of soybeans yields just 70 gallons (265 liters) of biodiesel per year.¶ “Your bang for your buck is just bigger because you can really do this on a much smaller amount of land and yet yield much, much higher biomass,” said Michael S. Atkins, CEO of San Francisco area-based Ocean Technology & Environmental Consulting (OTEC). Douglas Henston, CEO of Solix Biofuels, a company that grows algae for biofuels, has estimated that replacing all current U.S. diesel fuel use with algae biodiesel would require using only about one half of 1 percent of the farmland in production today. Algae can also grow on marginal lands, such as in desert areas where the groundwater is saline.¶

Algae trades off with corn

Algae crowds out corn as source for biofuels

Ngak 6/8/13, Chenda, Reporter for CBS News“Powering the future: Will algae fuel your next car?” http://www.cbsnews.com/news/powering-the-future-will-algae-fuel-your-next-car/

Professor Juergen Polle is packing up his laboratory on a sweltering morning in New York City, but the beakers and test tubes aren't going on summer break. The professor of biology at Brooklyn College has run out of funds for his research, and is shutting down his lab until a new round of funding can be found. Polle joins some of the top minds in the nation working to find an alternative for oil -- and he's placing his bet on algae.¶ "We cannot fly planes with ethanol. We need oil. And algae can make oil as a drop-in replacement for fossil fuel," Polle told CBSNews.com on a recent tour of his lab.¶ Proponents find algae appealing because it can be grown in salt water. The race to find a sustainable alternative to oil has mainly focused on other types of biofuels, like corn-derived ethanol or vegetable oil, but these options compete with food crops. What makes algae ideal is that it can be grown in non-arable land. And while it burns carbon dioxide (CO2) like fossil fuels, it requires CO2 to photosynthesize, making it carbon neutral.

Algae is 3x more efficient than corn based ethanol

Lane 9/23/13, Jim writer for Biofuels Digest, “It’s official: algae biofuels cut emissions by 50-70 percent, approaching oil energy economics, says report” http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2013/09/23/its-official-algae-biofuels-cut-emissions-by-50-70-percent-approaching-oil-energy-economics-says-report/

In Minnesota, the Algae Biomass Organization announced that a peer-reviewed paper, published in Bioresource Technology, has shown that algae-derived biofuel can reduce life cycle CO2 emissions by 50 to 70 percent compared to petroleum fuels, and is approaching a similar Energy Return on Investment (EROI) as conventional petroleum.¶ The study, “Pilot-scale data provide enhanced estimates of the life cycle energy and emissions profile of algae biofuels produced via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL),” is a life cycle analysis of an algae cultivation and fuel production process currently employed at pre-commercial scales. The authors examined field data from two facilities operated by Sapphire Energy in Las Cruces and Columbus, New Mexico that grow and process algae into Green Crude oil. Sapphire Energy’s Green Crude can be refined into drop-in fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.¶ The study concluded that algae technologies at commercial scale are projected to produce biofuels with lower greenhouse gas emissions and EROI values that are comparable to first generation biofuels. Additionally, algae based biofuels produced through this pathway at commercial scale will have a significant energy return on investment (EROI), close to petroleum and three times higher than cellulosic ethanol.¶ The system that was evaluated recycles nutrients, can accept an algae feed that is up to 90 percent water in the processing phase, and the final product can be blended with refinery intermediates for refining into finished gasoline or diesel product, resulting in significant energy savings throughout the process.¶

Algae can replace corn as a source for biofuels

Wogan 11/24/10, David is a writer for the Scientific American and an engineer and policy researcher, “Power from pondscum: Algal biofuels” http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2010/11/24/power-from-pondscum-algal-biofuels/

In the discussion of alternative energy and fuels, algae have been bubbling to the top of the proverbial feedstock pool. Algae, the little green guys responsible for everything from making your Dairy Queen Blizzard solid to forming the basis of our current fossil fuels, are being looked at long and hard by some of the nation’s top researchers and decision-makers as a source for next-generation biofuels.¶ Biofuels are already produced in large quantities. In the United States, corn is used to produce tens of millions of gallons of the ethanol each year. Biodiesel, produced in smaller volumes, can be produced from everything from waste cooking oil to soybeans and tropical plants.¶ Unfortunately, corn ethanol and terrestrial plant-based biodiesel face significant environmental and social dilemmas. Reliance on food crops for fuel poses problems for populations around the world that rely on basic staple foods such as corn. Deforestation is rampant in tropical climates as forests are cut down to accommodate oil crop production. And all of these crops require vast amounts of land and water.¶ Enter algae.¶ The idea is that algae can avoid some of the problems facing our current sources of biofuels. As evidenced by algae growing in backyard pools around the nation, algae aren’t the pickiest organisms; algae primarily require sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to grow. Carbon dioxide can come from power plants and industrial emitters, which not only results in faster growth, but also would let carbon dioxide from fossil fuels be recycled before being emitted to the atmosphere. Unlike terrestrial crops (like corn), algae can utilize wastewater for growth, reducing demand on scarce water resources.¶ And most important, algae produce useful compounds that can be formed into fuels and chemicals desperately needed by our society. Synthetic gasoline and diesel, jet fuel, ethanol and biodiesel can all be produced from different parts of the algal biomass and lipids, while some algae strains have been shown to produce hydrogen.

OMEGA uses algae to clean waste and produce clean biofuels w/o trading off food

Soderman No Date, Teague Soderman is a member of the NLSI staff, “Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA)” http://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/omega/

NASA scientists have proposed an ingenious and remarkably resourceful process to produce “clean energy” biofuels, that cleans waste water, removes carbon dioxide from the air, retains important nutrients, and does not compete with agriculture for land or freshwater. As a clean energy alternative, NASA invented a bioreactor that is an Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA), an algae photo-bioreactor that grows algae in municipal wastewater to produce biofuel and a variety of other products.¶ NASA plans to refine and integrate the technology into biorefineries to produce renewable energy products, including diesel and jet fuel. The OMEGA system consists of large plastic bags with inserts of forward-osmosis membranes that grow freshwater algae in processed wastewater by photosynthesis. Using energy from the sun, the algae absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nutrients from the wastewater to produce biomass and oxygen. As the algae grow, the nutrients are contained in the enclosures, while the cleansed freshwater is released into the surrounding ocean through the forward-osmosis membranes.¶ “The OMEGA technology has transformational powers. It can convert sewage and carbon dioxide into abundant and inexpensive fuels,” said Matthew Atwood, president and founder of Algae Systems. “The technology is simple and scalable enough to create an inexpensive, local energy supply that also creates jobs to sustain it.”¶ When deployed in contaminated and “dead zone” coastal areas, this system may help remediate these zones by removing and utilizing the nutrients that cause them. The forward-osmosis membranes use relatively small amounts of external energy compared to the conventional methods of harvesting algae, which have an energy intensive de-watering process.¶ Potential benefits include oil production from the harvested algae, and conversion of municipal wastewater into clean water before it is released into the ocean. After the oil is extracted from the algae, the algal remains can be used to make fertilizer, animal feed, cosmetics, or other valuable products. This successful spinoff of NASA-derived technology will help support the commercial development of a new algae-based biofuels industry and wastewater treatment.¶ “The reason why algae are so interesting is because some of them produce lots of oil,” said Jonathan Trent, the lead research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “In fact, most of the oil we are now getting out of the ground comes from algae that lived millions of years ago. Algae are still the best source of oil we know.”¶ Algae are similar to other plants in that they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, and use phosphates, nitrogen, and trace elements to grow and flourish. Unlike many plants, they produce fatty, lipid cells loaded with oil that can be used as fuel.¶ “The inspiration I had was to use offshore membrane enclosures to grow algae. We’re going to deploy a large plastic bag in the ocean, and fill it with sewage. The algae use sewage to grow, and in the process of growing they clean up the sewage,” said Trent.¶ It is a simple, but elegant concept. The bag will be made of semi-permeable membranes that allow fresh water to flow out into the ocean, while retaining the algae and nutrients. The membranes are called “forward-osmosis membranes.” NASA is testing these membranes for recycling dirty water on future long-duration space missions. They are normal membranes that allow the water to run one way. With salt water on the outside and fresh water on the inside, the membrane prevents the salt from diluting the fresh water. It’s a natural process, where large amounts of fresh water flow into the sea.¶ Floating on the ocean’s surface, the inexpensive plastic bags will be collecting solar energy as the algae inside produce oxygen by photosynthesis. The algae will feed on the nutrients in the sewage, growing rich, fatty cells. Through osmosis, the bag will absorb carbon dioxide from the air, and release oxygen and fresh water. The temperature will be controlled by the heat capacity of the ocean, and the ocean’s waves will keep the system mixed and active.¶ When the process is completed, biofuels will be made and sewage will be processed. For the first time, harmful sewage will no longer be dumped into the ocean. The algae and nutrients will be contained and collected in a bag. Not only will oil be produced, but nutrients will no longer be lost to the sea. According to Trent, the system ideally is fail proof. Even if the bag leaks, it won’t contaminate the local environment. The enclosed fresh water algae will die in the ocean.¶ The bags are expected to last two years, and will be recycled afterwards. The plastic material may be used as plastic mulch, or possibly as a solid amendment in fields to retain moisture.¶ When astronauts go into space, they must bring everything they need to survive. Living quarters on a spaceship require careful planning and management of limited resources.¶ “We have to remember,” Trent said, quoting Marshall McLuhan: “we are not passengers on spaceship Earth, we are the crew.”

Corn bad

Corn ethanol bad, five reasons, need 2^nd gen crops

Mellino 10/14/11, Cole is part of the energy team at the Center for American Progress writing for thinkprogress.org, “More Corn is Used For Ethanol in U.S. Than For Food or Feed — The Top Five Reasons We Should Stop This Madness” http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/10/14/344165/corn-ethanol-food-feed/

Today, more corn is grown in America for ethanol than for food or for livestock feed. For every 10 ears of corn grown in the U.S., two are consumed by humans, and the other eight are used for feed and fuel. In the last year, the scales have tipped so that ethanol represents the largest share of corn use — 5 billion bushels of corn went to animal feed and residual demand while “the nation used more than 5.05 billion bushels of corn to fill its gas tanks.”¶ That is sure to rile all those who see corn ethanol as an over-subsidized boondoggle for the climate, a group that includes Climate Progress (see “The Fuel on the Hill” and “Let them eat biofuels!“)¶ Corn ethanol was always touted as a “stepping stone” to advanced fuels. That is still true in theory. But with the government supporting traditional ethanol for so long, it’s time to refocus our efforts non-food based fuels. Here are the top five reasons why the U.S. should shift incentives away from traditional corn ethanol:¶1. Life cycle studies show that corn ethanol ranges from barely better than petroleum fuels to significantly worse, especially if you take into account land and water use issues, increased deforestation, and increased fertilizer use.¶2. Corn ethanol contributes to rises in food prices because of competition for arable land to grow food. With more corn for biofuels taking up that space, the price of grains and other agricultural products increases.¶ 3. For many in the developing world, rising prices mean they don’t eat. People in poor countries, especially in import-heavy sub-Saharan Africa, feel the impact of rising food prices far worse than in developed countries. This is because they spend so much more of their income on food. As the Poor people do not have that luxury. As the UN Reported earlier this month, 26 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, are still atextreme risk of hunger, with biofuels playing a significant role in exacerbating the problem.¶ 4. Climate change mitigation from biofuels will be “very limited” before 2050. “We will not have any greenhouse gas savings for the next 20 years…because they are working with first generation crops,”according to Mahendra Shah, an advisor to Qatar’s food security program.¶ 5. By focusing our national investments on corn ethanol, we prevent other technologies, including other biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol and micro algae biodiesel, which are low greenhouse gas emitters, from competing with corn ethanol.¶ Much has been written about the environmental and social consequences of food-based fuels. But with the U.S. now using more corn for ethanol that for animal feed or food for humans, that alarm is likely to increase

Corn Ethanol causes food price spikes and famine, this card is in the context of foodcrops

Goldenberg 10/11/11, Suzanne is an environment correspondent for The Guardian, “US must stop promoting biofuels to tackle world hunger, says thinktank” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/oct/11/us-biofuels-world-hunger-thinktank?newsfeed=true

America must stop promoting the production of biofuels if there is to be any real progress in addressing spiking global food prices and famine, such as seen in the Horn of Africa, an authoritative thinktank has warned.¶ A new report, the Global Hunger Index, warned that US government support for corn ethanol was a major factor behind this year's food price spikes – and was projected to fuel further volatility in food prices over the next decade.¶ Although the report noted some improvements over the past 20 years, 26 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, are still at extreme risk of hunger including Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Eritrea.¶ The hunger situation worsened most dramatically in the DRC with a 63% increase in hunger and undernourishment since 1990, the report warned. Burundi's hunger index rose by 21% and North Korea's by 18%.¶ And while Latin America, south-east Asia and the Caribbean made "remarkable progress" in reducing hunger, the report singled out India in particular for failing to improve the situation of its poorest people despite rapid economic growth since 2001.¶ India had "alarming" rates of hunger and undernourishment, putting it in line with the situation in sub-Saharan Africa.¶ The proportion of undernourished children in India has risen 2% since the mid-1990s, the report said. It blamed the increase in part on the lower status of women.
Wednesday newer cards:

OMEGA meets future energy needs, just 10 acres solves Aviation fuel needs

Howell 3/12/09, Katie is a writer for the Scientific American “NASA Aims for Future Fuel from Algae-Filled Bags of Sewage” http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-fuel-algae-sewage/

NASA is applying space technology to a decidedly down-to-earth effort that links the production of algae-based fuel with an inexpensive method of sewage treatment.¶ The space agency is growing algae for biofuel in plastic bags of sewage floating in the ocean.¶ Jonathan Trent, the lead researcher on the project at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said the effort has three goals: Produce biofuels with few resources in a confined area, help cleanse municipal wastewater, and sequester emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that are produced along the way.¶ "Algae are the best source of biofuels on the planet that we know about," Trent said in an interview. "If we can also clean [wastewater] at the same time we create biofuels, that would great."¶ The process is amazingly simple. It starts with algae being placed in sewage-filled plastic bags, which in true NASA style have a nifty acronym, OMEGA, for "offshore membrane enclosures for growing algae."¶ The OMEGA bags are semipermeable membranes that NASA developed to recycle astronauts' wastewater on long space missions. In this case, the membranes let freshwater exit but prevent saltwater from moving in.¶ Then the algae in the bag feast on nutrients in the sewage. The plants clean up the water and produce lipids – fat-soluble molecules – that will be used later as fuel.¶ Just as in algae biofuel production on land, the floating OMEGA bags use water, solar energy and carbon dioxide – which in this case is absorbed through the plastic membrane – to produce sugar that algae metabolize into lipids.¶ Oxygen and fresh, cleansed water are then released through the membrane to the ocean.¶ "It's energy-free," Trent said. "It doesn't cost us anything. Osmosis works by itself."¶ The system is foolproof, he said. Even if the OMEGA bags leak, the salty ocean water would kill the algae, preventing the escape of an invasive species.¶ "Freshwater algae can't compete in the marine environment," Trent said. "We're not putting something out there that could become an invasive species."¶ And if the wastewater spills, he said, "the only thing we're putting in the water is already in the ocean anyway."¶ Feasibility¶ NASA's plastic bags are designed to last up to three years, Trent said. After that, they could be recycled as plastic mulch or chopped and used to improve soil quality and help retain moisture.¶ "We don't think this would be cost-effective if we just go after the fuels," Trent said. "But we're functioning on at least three different levels: making the products – fuel, fertilizers – then wastewater processing and carbon sequestration. The economic model becomes more reasonable."¶ In fact, Trent said, the technology is nearly cost-competitive with land-based production methods for algae biofuels that require vast industrial-scale, open-air pond farms or in closed bioreactors.¶ But land-based methods have limits, Trent said. Open-air ponds and bioreactors gobble up large tracts of land that would be taxed and could potentially compete with agriculture. And even in deserts, where farming is less likely, evaporation of open-air ponds is a threat. Closed bioreactors face similar hurdles. They must be extremely robust in order to hold large amounts of water against air.¶ "We've solved the problem of evaporation, weeds, structure," Trent said. "And we think we've added other benefits like processing sewage and sequestering carbon."¶ Trent envisions the OMEGAs producing enough fuel to fill U.S. aviation needs – 21 billion gallons a year. Doing so would require about 10 acres of ocean, he said.¶ "It seems huge, but it's a small area in the overall oceans," he said. "And we imagine [the OMEGAs] distributed around, locally distributed ... or franchised and monitored by fishermen."

Algae can meet world energy demand, laundry list of reasons, can also replace corn ethanol

Smith 11, Val H. Smith, PhD, is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas (KU). He is published on a range of topics including the ecology of eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems www2.ku.edu/~eeb/faculty/smithv.shtml “The Ecology of Algal Biofuel Production” March 2011 at the American Institute of Biological Sciences http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotechnology/smith.html

Although conventional biofuel production relies primarily on land plants as a feedstock, many researchers believe that biofuel production on the scale needed to compete with petroleum-based fuels on the open market will require the use of microscopic algae,4 which grow abundantly and naturally in the world’s surface waters and can be converted into multiple kinds of biofuel. Algae have the potential to produce sufficient quantities of biofuel to satisfy the world’s growing energy demands, even considering predicted limitations on the availability of land and water resources.5¶ What are algae, and how can they be used to produce biofuels?¶ Algae require less water and can produce more fuel than land plants.¶ Algae are tiny, plantlike organisms that include the green alga Pediastrum (Figure 1). The algae used in biofuel production are freshwater algae, comprising both prokaryotic and eukaryotic species, that grow naturally in every freshwater creek, river, pond, lake, and reservoir on the Earth’s surface. Algae are also aquatic biomass production systems that have both a higher fuel yield potential and lower water demand than terrestrial plants, and they generate cellular products such as oils, starch, protein, and other marketable compounds.6 Like land plants, microalgae derive their energy from the biochemical process of photosynthesis, which captures the sun’s radiant energy and converts atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into new cellular biomass. When measured in standard calorie units, the energy content of algae per unit weight does not differ significantly from that of land plants. In addition, although there can be considerable variation in their cellular oil content,7 all species of algae contain oil that can be extracted for use in biofuel production. To date, more than $1 billion in private sector funding has been committed to the development of algae-based fuels.8¶ Algae can be used to produce a variety of renewable energy resources.¶ The idea of using algae as a feedstock for biofuel production dates back at least 50 years, to when William J. Oswald and Clarence G. Golueke first proposed the use of “raceway ponds” to cultivate large quantities of algal biomass for fermentation to create methane gas.9 In such ponds, growing algae are moved along with paddles and then removed at the downstream end. Soon after the proposed use of raceway ponds, research in algae-derived bioenergy focused on the production of liquid fuels that can be combusted directly in standard internal combustion and jet engines,7 and large oil companies and research institutions have recently joined forces in commercial ventures to produce biodiesel from algae. However, algae can also be used to produce other renewable energy products, such as biohydrogen, hydrocarbons, and bioethanol; in addition, as noted above, the algal biomass itself can be processed to generate biogas.6,10¶ Alternatively, dried algae can be combusted directly, much like the burning of crop residues, wood, coal, or peat. This use of algae is important because the direct combustion of plant biomass is a sector of bioenergy already in development that takes advantage of existing commodity supply chains.1 Just like any energy commodity that can used for direct combustion, however, algal biomass would need to consistently meet several key criteria with respect to its energy, moisture, and undesirable pollutant content.1¶ Algae offer numerous significant benefits relative to their soil-grown counterparts:11,12¶ Algal cells can exhibit extremely rapid growth rates, doubling one to three times per day, and they can be grown abundantly in waters of widely varying chemical composition.¶ Algal cells can synthesize and accumulate large quantities of bioproducts (e.g., oil), that can be harvested and marketed to offset the costs of biofuel production.¶ Cultivating algae rather than land plants, such as corn, for bioenergy could reduce the diversion of agricultural crops away from vitally needed food production.¶ The land “footprint” needed to produce a given amount of bioenergy is much smaller for algae than for terrestrial biofuel crops.¶ Algae can be grown using effluents from domestic wastewater treatment plants and other sources of nontoxic liquid waste, which provide an abundant source of water and mineral nutrients that are required for algal growth.¶ If grown in wastewater streams, the water “footprint” needed to produce a given amount of bioenergy is much smaller for algae than for terrestrial biofuel crops.¶ Algae can provide an important ecosystem service by removing nitrogen, phosphorus, and other contaminants from wastewater feeds.¶ Algae can also be used to remove carbon dioxide from high-CO2 gas streams, such as flue gases and flaring gases, that can be piped to algal biofuel production facilities from nearby energy generation plants.¶ Algal biomass yields can be optimally maintained by modifying harvesting rates.¶ The ability of algae to grow continuously in many climates may help reduce the strong seasonality of biomass yields currently seen with terrestrial biofuel crops.