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Of all of the various ways to extract oil from algae, the one which is presently considered the most economical is the use of superfluid carbon dioxide, and even this is considered to costly in terms of energy to be economically viable.
What if a continuous, instead of batch process, were used? It
would then be possible to reduce the energy needed to pressurize the algae/water/CO mixture, by using a pressure exchanger. Also, the energy needed to heat it could be reduced by use of a heat exchanger.
How much cheaper would the algae oil become if both of these forms of energy recovery could be used?
Pressure Exchanger
http://en.wikipedia.../Pressure_Exchanger
[goldbb, Feb 17 2009]
Pressure Exchanger Picture & Animation
http://www.energyre...y/how_it_works.php4
[goldbb, Feb 17 2009]
Animation
http://www.youtube....watch?v=Y4Yk2Srs4XM
To replace busted link [popbottle, Apr 22 2014]
Coalgi
http://www.esi-afri...st-in-south-africa/
The TV report on this, seemed to show continuous production (on laboratory scale). However, it's election time here, so the national broadcaster is hard at work telling everyone how well things are going, and good news from here must be taken with a pinch of salt. Might be the real deal; might not. [skoomphemph, Apr 22 2014]
[link]
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sp. algae, CO2; also don't you mean supercritical rather than superfluid? |
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spidermother, thanks; and you are correct: I meant supercritical fluid rather than superfluid. |
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Put the algae into the fluid used in fracking. Then,
when the gas has run out, wait a few hundred
thousand years and you can get the oil back out. |
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