Here’s a fun thought

Petrol from algae. Bit of GM, we know that the chemistry is possible. Atmospheric CO2, seawater, few other bits and bobs, sunshine.

So we can make something akin to oil that way.

Obvs, price is a bit of a handicap. But now think that we get that down. To where we’re actually price competitive. $30 a barrel oil equivalent. Yes, OK, a what if but still.

So, what’s the cheapest way of beating climate change? Run those plants at double volume and pump the new algal oil back into the old fossil reservoirs. That’ll be fun, won’t it?

27 thoughts on “Here’s a fun thought”

  3. Dennis, Climate-Change Denying Fruitcake

    So, what’s the cheapest way of beating climate change?

    How about accepting the fact that “climate change” is a scam being foisted upon us by would-be totalitarians?

    Just a thought.

  4. Tim Worstall

    Sigh.

    It’s not the algal fuel that’s the fun part, It’s pumping it back into the reservoirs as a form of sequestration that is…..

  6. Gamecock

    Oil from algae will work to provide our oil.

    Just kill 7,500,000,000 people and algae will provide all we could need.

  8. Chernyy_Drakon

    It’s not the algal fuel that’s the fun part, It’s pumping it back into the reservoirs as a form of sequestration that is…..

    Sounds suspiciously close to fracking. Which will be banned and the hippies hate.

  9. Kevin B

    Of course, extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and oceans and pumping underground will have no dangerous consequences. I mean it’s not as if CO2 is a major contributor to the growth of plants and the more of it in the environment the better the plants grow.

    Please, please, please do not invoke ‘innovative’ solutions to ‘global warming’ that involve making it colder. Ra has that proposition well in hand already.

  11. Dr Evil

    The Israelis have been working on this for years. The trick is to get a very high oil content in the algae and a simple way of separating it. They have a lot of sunshine so could use ponds rather than artificial light.

  12. Hallowed Be

    what would be fun if that algal strain got into the wild and went into logarythmic growth. We needed to burn baby burn for all we’re worth to maintain the temp and the food supply.

  15. Maritime Barbarian

    Or, cut down trees, burn half in power stations, and bury the rest in redundant coal mines. Replant the forest.
    Trees absorb CO2 during growth, not during maturity.
    My plan uses current technology. Can I have a grant?

  16. Runcie Balspune

    “… sunshine”

    It’s all sunshine.

    Sunshine “stored” in plants that becomes “concentrated sunshine” millions of years later.

    Sunshine that powers wind and wave.

    Sunshine that can be converted directly using solar panels.

    Problem has always been that pesky 150 million km gap sunshine needs to travel and the wide area it gets distributed over, kind of dilutes it a bit.

    Why not take a piece of the sun here on earth and use that.

    Fission is part of the way there and already an available stop-gap, fusion would be the end point.

  17. John B

    The fun part would be being allowed just to get on with the rest of our lives without having a litany of made-up dooms recited at us all daily, all our fault and for which we must pay and be made miserable.

  18. Steve

    being allowed just to get on with the rest of our lives without having a litany of made-up dooms recited at us all daily, all our fault and for which we must pay and be made miserable.

    This is why libertarianism will never work until all the hippies, crusties, do-gooders, prodnoses, Puritans, rent-seekers, and clipboard-wielding narks are helicoptered into the maw of an active volcano.

  20. Mr Ecks

    The return of William Conmanllly. Fuck right off again you lying eco-freak scumbag.

    As for algaefuel–sounds like more cockrot from a similar gang to that which gave us the menace of bio-ethanol–and a fucking right mess that is.

  21. Tractor Gent

    What’s the point of pumping it back down into a reservoir? You’ve spent a lot of effort making it just to lose some fraction of it that will never come back up. Better to schedule the algal oil stream into the refineries & leave the equivalent fossil oil in the ground.

  22. Chernyy_Drakon

    The fun part would be being allowed just to get on with the rest of our lives without having a litany of made-up dooms recited at us all daily, all our fault and for which we must pay and be made miserable.

    Just ignore the buggers.
    If they put taxes up on something you enjoy, do it anyway. Spend less elsewhere.
    Taxes go up on sugary drinks? Eat less veg. Have a heart attack sooner – that’s what the NHS is for anyway.
    If they outlaw it, go on holiday to do it, spend your money abroad and starve them of the associated taxes.

    They don’t have much power and they know it. Their only power comes from you believing they do.

    Nobody gets out of this alive. Enjoy yourself.

  24. Steve

    Chernyy_Drakon – I love eccentric scientific theories like abiotic oil and panspermia, but the boring truth is that Titan probably has lots of methane, which is chemically much simpler than petroleum.

  26. BniC

    There’s been test flights using algae derived fuel for jets, might be a loophole to get around the banning flying eco-talk. Certainly a better plan than developing electric planes

  27. rhoda klapp

    Chernyy_Drakon there is no evidence that the common wisdom on diet is any good at all. There is a recommendation, it changes with fashion, would-be authoritarians push it onto us. But only because they want control, not because they know the real best diet or even want us to live longer healthier lives.

  28. Pcar

    So, what’s the cheapest way of beating climate change?

    What’s the cheapest way of beating the tide coming in?

    Build a wall ie can’t be done thus Adapt

    .
    @Tim Worstall November 6, 2019 at 2:25 pm

    Re: Sigh

    Why would any sane person spend money producing oil then land-fill it?

    .
    @John B November 6, 2019 at 3:40 pm
    @Steve November 6, 2019 at 3:50 pm

    +1

  29. Pcar

    Meanwhile:

    11,000 scientists from across world unite to declare Eugenics* and Poverty** needed to halt global climate emergency
    Profoundly troubling signs from human activities include sustained increases in both human and ruminant livestock populations, per capita meat production, [**]world gross domestic product….
    .

    * Still increasing by roughly 80 million people per year, or more than 200,000 per day, the world population must be stabilized—and, ideally, gradually reduced—within a framework that ensures social integrity

  30. Mr Ecks

    Agenda 21 –or whatever the fuck they are calling it now. Scientistic shills for the globo-elite.

    And if those scum get the power they seek you can forget the “gradually reduced” bit.

  32. Baron Jackfield

    @Pcar…

    The Guardian takes all its hysteria from “Ripple et al” Bioscience 2019 Which is a “viewpoint” rather than a “paper”. The authors are:

    William J Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M Newsome, Phoebe Barnard, William R Moomaw

    A quick troll thru the interwebs (admittedly, as a deep sceptic I was looking for “dirt”) comes up with the following…

    “Ripple”

    William J. Ripple and Nicholas R. Houtman (2019). “Chapter 2: Scientists’ warnings have been ignored”. In Extinction Rebellion (ed.). This Is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook. Penguin Books. pp. 28–30. ISBN 9780141991443.

    So, he’s an activist who contributes to ER…?

    “Wolf”

    (from his Researchgate.net profile)

    I am a co-signatory for the in-press Viewpoint article in the journal BioScience (https://academic.oup.com/bioscience) [Oxford University Press] entitled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: a second notice” by Ripple et. al. (2017). The pre-print article can be read at: [ http://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/ ]. If you are a scientist from any scientific discipline (e.g. ecology, medicine, economics, etc.), and are concerned about global environmental and climate trends, the authors invite you to become a co-signatory of the paper. According to the website, more than 13,000 scientists from 180 countries have already signed.

    So, the “11,000” scientists quoted by the Grauniad are anybody who fancies bunging their name into a website (according to more eagle-eyed contributors to WuWT they include “Dr Mickey Mouse” and “Prof A Dumbledore”).

    Couldn’t be bothered to look at details for the other authors. So, IMnsHO an opinion piece to be treated with extreme care, especially as it espouses a return to medieval levels of “lifestyle”.

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