Amazing Lamp Powered by Algae, Water, and Your Breath
Susana Camara Leret
Treehugger has noted before how one can generate electricity from algae; Now Designboom shows a lamp designed by Mike Thompson that uses the principle. Place the lamp outside and the algae generates electricity during photosynthesis; it gets stored in a battery and released when needed. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Algae Producers Strike Back, Dispute Poor Enviro-Performance Study
photo: Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust via flickr.
At the end of last week researchers from the University of Virginia dropped a bombshell on the algae biofuel industry, producing an algae life-cycle analysis which had it not faring so well against first generation biofuels, being more water intensive and producing more greenhouses gases. Well, the algae industry has come back swinging (as one might expect). <a href="http://www.biofuelsdi…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Is Algae the Fuel of the Gods?
Image credit: Good
Is algae the fuel of the gods? Well, on paper, it very well could be. Industry evangelists predict a bright future in which algae farms produce the equivalent of the entire amount of petroleum the United States’ currently uses in a year. Even better: Algae could potentially do this using just one percent of the country’s land mass and might actually remove carbon from the atmosphere in the process.
Sounds great, but there are some problems….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Your Own Personal Vertical Farm from Philips
We love vertical farms on TreeHugger, but some question whether they make any sense. But perhaps if they were downsized and brought into our homes they might be just what we need. “This Biophere home farm contains fish, crustaceans, algae, plants and other mini-ecosystems, all interdependent and in balance with each other.”…Read the full story on TreeHugger
BioOctanic Tower: Vertical Farm Grows Biofuel for Gas Stations
Sometimes it’s just impossible to find a gas station. But not if Croatian Architects UPI2M have their way; They propose building vertical farms and biofuel factories on top of existing gas stations, using algae and bamboo grown on top to fuel up cars below. And, you can’t miss them!
…Read the full story on TreeHugger
LiveFuels to Farm Fish to Make Biofuel = Bad Idea
Tilapia farming, photo: Andy via flickr.
LiveFuels thinks it knows the way around making expensive algae biofuel production equipment and scaling that up for commercial production, raise fish to eat the algae and store it in their organs, and then kill the fish to get the oil. Thankfully this one’s in the early stages and commercial production isn’t imminent:…Read the full story on TreeHugger
BP Gets Into Algae: Signs Multi-year Development Agreement with Martek Biosciences
photo: Rosa y Dani via flickr
Another fossil fuel company investing in algae: BP has announced that it will be partnering with Martek Biosciences to work on advancing development of conversion of sugars into biodiesel, using Martek’s “unique algae-based technologies and intellectual property.”…Read the full story on TreeHugger