Is Algae The Fuel Of The Future? | Answers With Joe

Algae biofuels have been touted as the fuel of the future. They lock away carbon, grow very fast and everywhere, and produce a lot of oil. So why hasn't it taken off yet?

Support me on Patreon!

Become a member!

Join me on the Our Ludicrous Future Podcast:

Get cool nerdy t-shirts at

Interested in getting a Tesla? Use my referral link and get discounts and perks:

Follow me at all my places!

LINKS LINKS LINKS:

Algae-powered building

[OGSontar]

I, for one, welcome our genetically altered Algae monster overlords.

[leavonfletcher]

Having a diesel fuel refinery in your backyard sounds like an Austin thing.

[stevenllewellyn]

Hey Joe, I worked at Algae Biofuel labs for my last year of undergraduate and it was my first job out of college. That means that I know more than many people but am not a PhD.


That being said I appreciate that you did a pretty good job of presenting the information and I appreciate that nothing was glaringly wrong. I have seen some really dumb people say some really dumb things about algae biofuel as if they knew what they were talking about.


Two points that I thought could add to your knowledge and the interest of people that are wanting to do a deep dive into the comments for your video.


1. Hydrothermal liquefaction. It is using heat and pressure to turn the biomass into basically crude oil. That can then go through the current processes we have saving a lot of time and money on infrastructure.The problem is that it takes more energy than you currently get out of the system. So if I were to do a company, or at home laboratory experiments I would try to find a catalyst for Hydrothermal liquefaction. Try to lower the energy input to flip that imbalance


2. You mentioned a moon shot idea and I think you were pretty close. I think that Algae Biofuel has a great application in terraforming mars or in martian housing problems. (Mars shot, get it?) The reason that this would work is that Algae is pretty easy to grow and one of the few ingredients is CO2. Mars has two icecaps that are made entirely of CO2. What is the byproduct of Algae and CO2? Oxygen. So you could make oxygen for the habitat and power some diesel rovers with the same process. The economy is not as much of a factor because there aren't oil companies so this would be cheaper on mars than going to the local gas station.


Learning about Algae Biofuel really helped me to realize that very nearly almost all of the energy on this planet comes from the sun.


Wind power? comes from the sun because it is the sun that causes weather power that creates currents of the wind.
Even Natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes ultimately get their power from the sun.


Hydro electric? comes from water that is traveling from a high place to a low place. How did that water get up to a high place? the sun evaporated it to rise and then fell as precipitation?


Biofuels? all of those happen from the sunlight. and like you said coal and crude oil are biofuels that have been stored under the ground for millions of years


Even horse or manpower comes from the sun.



That being said it seems like having efficient solar would be the best way to go. Or like you said fusion which is what the sun does.


Anyway thanks for making a great video like always!




P.S. you would absolutely make my week if you were to respond in some way.

[Radvaldur]

This is a YouTube comment for the almighty algorithm. it contains words like, terrific, outstanding, incredible and brilliant to satiate its hunger for engagement.

[mylastword]

When looking at the inefficiency of biofuels all I can think of is using it as an storage medium for renewables. The on demand nature, transportability, and potential interoperability with existing liquid/gas fuels is interesting. Basically use it as a replacement for fuels that runs on excess renewable grid potential.

[SakeofScienceChrisKammel]

I was a Biodieseler for 7 years and only recently sold all my stuff. In the beginning it cost me about .70$ per gallon because I had to buy my Vegy oil . As prices for gas dropped the oil became free and my cost was as little as $.35 per gallon. I only stopped because it does take a couple days to make a batch and my son moves to his college town and my wife’s newer diesel vehicle would no longer run on biodiesel because all the unneeded o2 sensors read the biodiesel as a contaminant and would put the engine in limp mode. I ran three vehicles on 100% bioD for 7 years over 100k miles with no problems. And the engines ran better on bioD. But the auto industry made their vehicles so they would not run appropriately for no reason but profit. It is sad.

[redriver]

Absolutely love to see the not's when Joe has I know I'm going to be educated and entertained. Love this channel.

[lemontwiss]

My take on this is that it reminds me of the video you did on AT&T's predictions of future technologies:
Because we currently have gas stations that distribute fuel to the population, we assume that we will also need gas stations to distribute green fuel, like this Algae-based fuel.

But, what if someone comes up with a design for a personal use Algae-fuel making machine that comes in different sizes depending on the amount of fuel that the person consumes.
This could become a home installation, just like solar panels or water tanks. An Algae-tank that turns algae into fuel, and which you have to fill with fertilizers every once in a while.
This would MASSIVELY reduce the amount of emissions from transportation as well as cut the costs of massive algae-farms and harvesting. The downside is that the mass-scale production of the algae machines would produce emissions and increase costs on the short-term, but on the long term it would become as common as a refrigerator in homes.

[joeyhamilton]

I know this is a year late but the main thing with biofuels for me is the plastic alternatives. You covered the use of the glucose in the algae but not the hemicellulose nor the lignin. These have a lot of aromatic rings that with the right catalyst could be broken down to Benzene, toluene and xylene. From there we can just drop them into normal solvent and plan sticks production.

[Apollocreed]

"Why does your car smell like french fries?"

[ElijahPerrin]

I also had dreams of a biofuel reactor, but life ran into fast forward and my tdi got old and turned into an Impala then a Tesla, great show

[del]

"...and yeah, it's narrated by Zuul" made me spit my coffee into my keyboard, so...yeah. Worth it.

[garypalmer]

Oil is a renewable resource. Its just takes a million yrs to make :P

[chriszarco]

I feel like there has to be major steps taken in order for Algae biofuels to grow. I think a lot of professionals just rushed to algae for money and possible growth benefits. But more research has to go into this because although it might not be as big as other renewable sources, best believe it is going to be one of the contributions for petroleum based fuel replacement.

[kelandryyemrot]

This just reminds me of The 100 show where Monti (don't know if I spelled that right) used algae to keep them alive in space when when they had to go back after the nuclear meltdown thing. Now it makes a lot of sense how it worked so well.

[iwiffitthitotonacc]

I don't think it's gonna become a fuel, but I do think it'll become a food source as it can be farmed with sea water in the desert, unlike most crops.

[addisonmartin]

This was a very informative video, thanks Joe!

[odw]

I think solar/wind/nuclear with lithium or solid state batteries will keep biofuels uneconomical. It will be more interesting to use algae to:

1. Use infertile earth surface (deserts, seas) to produce calories for humans.
2. Produce plastics for manufacturing in space.

[borisradu]

12:51 "Just do it nerd!" - When you put it like that, yeah I think I'll do it... 😆

[jrodine]

I worked for the now defunct Solix Biofuels and bought into the startup's promise of algae into oil vision until we ran the math (W/m^2 vs. production). Companies were gaming the hype to get military contracts and investment dollars with full knowledge the math does not work out. It's not just growing the algae, which can be done quickly but the starving/stressing the algae in order for it change from growth life cycle state to lipid storage stage which can be a fine line to walk and not kill off the crop. Excellent job on the facts presented, accurate across the board.