--- Michel Jullian wrote:
> Summary: Sargassum is a high growth species ("10
> times the output volume of gracilaria"), convertible
> to ethanol.
Well - to be precise, any biofuel system should aim
for butanol instead of ethanol...
Butanol is highly preferable for several reasons
already mentioned in past postings: better energy
density, lack of corrosion and low water affinity,
less vapor pressure, and easy substitution into either
diesel or gasoline, and unlimited blending in any
ratio, etc... That choice is a no-brainer.
... plus AFAIK biomass which is convertible into one
alcohol can be converted to the other by changing the
bacteria strain.
PLUS - back in 2005, we broke the so-called
"fermentation barrier" using "electrical assist"...
which is a big jump in the hybridization of the
fermentation process itself.
The first electrically-assisted process was aimed at
getting more hydrogen out of fermentation for fuel
cells, but fuel cells are a bust. And hydrogen can't
be easily stored. That new wrinkle in fermentation was
able to produce four times the quantity of hydrogen
over typical fermentation by eliminating one of the
parasitic demands of the process.
There is every reason to believe that that with
genetic engineering, in consort with electrical
assist, we can convert sargassum into butanol VERY
efficiently, since it is closer to cellulose in
chemical makeup than is ethanol.
As I understand it, the fermentation barrier is about
limiting the effect of acetic acid and other unwanted
chemical pathways by providing a slight power boost to
the bacteria in the form of a direct electric current
at 0.25 volts or so. If you put in much higher
voltage, the higher current kills the bacteria but a
small boost can accelerate a desired pathway.
At any rate, this and other rapidly evolving R&D shows
that new methods are out there, which can be tailored
to needs, and are ready to provide increased renewable
energy from biomass over what has been the traditional
approach and expectation.
Jones
