Land of algae, milk and biofuel!
Ed Taylor, Tribune, May 13, 2007
Milk and biofuel is an odd combination, but a Phoenix, Arizona-based company is planning to produce both. When fully built, the ag-industrial complex planned by the XL Dairy Group will produce 100 million gallons of ethanol, 25 million to 30 million gallons of biodiesel fuel and 21 million gallons of milk a year.
The concept is to use waste produced by the dairy cows to make energy that would be used to turn corn into ethanol and biodiesel, said Dennis Corderman, chief executive and chairman of XL Dairy Group. Byproducts of the ethanol and biodiesel production will be cycled back to produce energy for the biorefinery and to provide feed for the dairy cows.
The difference between this project and other ethanol plants is that this project will use waste streams from the dairy to produce its own energy - to provide the electrical and heat and steam energy for the entire facility. The operation will have an energy efficiency ratio of 10-to-1, where conventional ethanol plants have an energy efficiency ratio of about 1.2-to-1, he said.
So where does algae play a role in the scheme of things?
After the second phase goes into action, instead of corn, the company will use algae as the feedstock to produce both ethanol and biodiesel. XL plans to grow algae on 2,400 acres of adjacent state land, using manure water, carbon dioxide produced as a byproduct of the ethanol process and sunlight.
The company will propagate algae in a patent-pending system of horizontally mounted clear tubes.
Read the full report from here @ East Valley Tribune
Nature gave us oil from algae; perhaps we should try Nature's way again
Oilgae; Oilgae Blog; List of Oilgae Blog articles.
algOS - Biodiesel from Algae Open Source
Oilgae has a focus on biodiesel production from algae while also discussing alternative energy in general.
No comments:
Post a Comment