Can Algae Fuel Our Cars?
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
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As the search for alternative energy sources continues, scientists are looking to the microcosmos and wondering: Can we use algae oil to power our cars, our airplanes, and maybe even our spaceships?
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www.nature.com/articles/s4159... - Наука та технологія
Algae has Oil:
USA: I hear somebody needs some freedom.
They want you to think wars are for oil, but they are actually for Israel.
@@BikingVikingHH Why not both?
@@erstwhilegrubstake The US has plenty of oil, Israeli funded Eco groups prevent us from accessing our own oil, making us dependent on the Middle East and Israeli politics.
I have put on my tinfoil hat, please continue...
@@mikecook3546 Does it fit well?
Jokes on you, I already chill out in a bubble of my own making when things get tough
You can’t just drop this and not give us an explanation
@@gangsterman5590 gotta admit it's more of a metaphorical bubble - and a supremely unhealthy one. Basically tuning out everything thats unpleasant, getting high and chilling
Me too :D
Isn't that what the whole world been doing for the last 9 months?
You mean one of those tumblers for kids?
The quality of footage you're capturing and presenting here just keeps getting better. This is exceedingly professional footage.
Yesss! Can't wait to start my setup🙌
It seems the question has shifted over time from "Oil is running out, how do we make more?" to "The planet is dying, how can we do useful work without killing the planet more?"
Cool thing about algae grown biofuels is they have the chance to be carbon negative, which means reversing some of the damage done by climate change
Yep, that’s what shale/fracking (and other discoveries/advancements) did; it moved the conversation from “Peak Oil” to “So we *can* keep using this stuff, but *should* we?”
@@Randomgen77
I doubt fracking is a long term solution. It's like scraping the bottom of the barrel.
News tomorrow:
*America has invaded the micro cosmos*
USA Government said if President Ahmoeba owned some dangerous weapon in Algaenistan
"Do not think this will be easy. Do not think it will require only a few things to alter the course that humanity is currently on. Do not think there are easy and basic solutions. There are a thousand solutions that will be needed, and you only have a few. You will have to find the others, and it will take great human effort and collaboration to make this possible."
"You are living in a global emergency. Do not think this will not affect you and your life profoundly and completely."
- from 'The New World' by Marshall Vian Summers
Prescience, or just a man who paid attention to the human condition?
Thank you.
Because of this channel I now have a self made Photobioreactor, and learnt so much from the few algae species I purchased online.
What are you growing?
Do you know if there are any algae or biological compound that would be good for carbon sequestration? Something denser than water with low nutritional value that quickly sinks to the bottom of the ocean? Some algae poop that would be great for sequestering CO2?
@@dejayrezme8617 I started with spirulina and c. Vulgaris, but recent have been fascinated by c. rein. I am definitely no expert in this field, but most of them have the highest nutritional value among all foods due to high lipid/protein composition, while such composition can also be altered by altering environment (tracer minerals, light spectrum and other factors). For carbon sequestration in nature in a meaningful scale, you will need to scale up enormously. Collecting the biomass efficiently is a problem too, they are like extremely efficient trees in micrometers.
@@CkT1701 Thanks that's interesting. I want to get into that too. I've been wondering if you could use double glazed windows as "algae solar panels" to grow food. Like a slim greenhouse you put on the roof of your house.
About the carbon sequestration, yeah I figure that is a tricky question. Most carbon is apparently sequestered with marine snow, permanently removing it. So I've been wondering if that could be improved in a way that is easily scaleable. Just have some sort of autonomous "sea tractor" to fertilize and monitor growth and they just poop carbon to the bottom of the ocean.
@@dejayrezme8617 there are studies that used algae plastic bags that float around in costal areas. The key is cost and scalability I think. I also read there are studies that focus on naturally grow marine algae in mass but then it was later determined that it is not effective enough to solve the co2 problem as of now. But again it all boils down to innovation and science. Maybe we crack the genetic code of some species to allow higher production, or be it we crack photosynthesis and develop efficient direct carbon capturing.
@@CkT1701 Yeah I don't know enough and am just speculation.
I've read a bit about iron fertilization and understand it's not a silver bullet.
So you'd need to somehow tweak genetic codes to somehow sequester "pure carbon" or carbohydrates but not the minerals and elements so they remain at the surface to be recycled.
From what I understand vast stretches of the ocean are basically deserts with little marine growth because of lack of fertilizer. But if you could harvest some of the 70% of the planets surface for photosynthesis with algae that are like a "self assembly nanobot" that might be the best or only way.
I've been culturing 7 species of algae for about 2 years now and one of my biggest personal goals is to build a refinery by the end of this year. I've already been practicing published deprivation methods with Nannochloropsis and think I may at least have that part down right.
i know very VERY VERY like EXTREMELY basic knowledge of microbes and microscopes and stuff, uh whats a refinery in this context? what does it do?
@@orue5499 It's physically removing oils from algae in this context. Typically uses ultrasonic aggregation and later stages can heat, dehydrate and pulverize, etc but that depends on the build budget and engineering skills
@@VectorNodes okay, thanks for the info mate
@@VectorNodes Can I ask what major you have? I want to work with algae in cultivation culture hopefully for biofuels but I am going to a biologist ( my school does not have microbiology major.) Also any information or tips would be appreciated. Good luck building a refinery.
@@soup5948 I'm formally uneducated. I have learned everything I know about engineering and science from library books and the internet. There are a lot of papers on refining specifically Nannochloropsis and they're mostly jet fuels but they explain lighting and nutrient control conditions well.
Algae: has oil
Cars: I'll take your entire stock
USA: Time to bring some democracy
I think algae biofuels are still our best option when it comes to transitioning to all electric for vehicles. There's been more than a century of innovation in the world of combustion engines, and all that advancement isn't going away overnight. All electric is inevitable, but people aren't going to get rid of their combustion engines without a fight, and trying to completely phase them out is both impractical and infeasible.
Whats interesting is that back in 2008 I wrote a term paper on Algae and how they can be used for biofuels. Its amazingly interesting and I would suggest that anyone reading this comment look up the book by David Blume: Alcohol Can Be A Gas. It proposes ways that Algae can be more easily formed into alcohol, which can be burned in modern engines with nothing more than a mere computer tune. We don't need to necessarily turn them into crude oil to burn them.
*This reminds me of the time I finally convinced my significant rotifer that algae was the fuel of the future!*
*Naturally, I was really into algae cars, and settled on a brand new 2021 Trentepohlia (or Trentla for short). Very good acceleration on the starting ribosome strip, and impressive mileage through the microbial fluid zones!*
*Unfortunately it exceeded our budget vacuoles, so we had to sell it to a local cell-car dealer. But oh my, I shall never forget what a ride it was!*
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘕𝘔𝘗𝘚 (𝘕𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥)?
@@arocr5735 *0 to 60 NMPS in 1.6 seconds!*
Our favorite boi is back after having not seen you for a past few videos. We thought you might have gotten in an accident with a heliozoan or stentor.
@@GordonFreechmen He did. That's why you'll be seeing me as well from now on. Time to go hunt some Paramecium!
No doubt you are living your best life.
Seeing a new one of these after turning in a stressful assignment before midnight is honestly the greatest relief.
Do I hear gene editing to make algae that produce greater quantities of oil more rapidly?
Feed them some cocaine?
and acsidentally create THE BLOB, brilliant.
Bro thata a great idea you should probably get in touch with some scientists! They'll be annoyed they didn't think of it first
@@joshuastrickland3770 That sounds like some top notch experimentation. "The effects of Stimulant Medications on Botryococcus: How Florida Man can Power the Future with his Meth Lab."
@@BlueSparrow23 That's actually a serious and a funny comment at the same time.
👍
Random strange question.... Have you guys considered adding a modular system that attaches to the xyz axes to have automated control. Tied in with an image recognition system you could set it to follow a microbe and you could record its entire life. It should be possible with NodeRed or Codesys and Open CV. It could all run on a Raspberry Pi, a Beaglebone Black etc.
I'm soo excited when I see a new one of these.
Thanks to everyone that make this happen.
One of the most important advantage of algae, is they can grow on industrial waste water and convert the wastewater into fresh water. This means one of the major issues of biofuel (water negative source of energy) can be solved through this quality of algae.
I'd be lying if I didn't occasionally daydream about being a tardigrade or rotifer or some other microcritter, incapable of thought, and thus, worry. I blame this channel, you make it look so relaxing.
I listen to a podcast called the Talking Biotech Podcast. They had an interesting interview recently with someone working with algae-derived oils with the end goal being biodegradable plastics for things like flip-flops. The scientist went over their use for biofuels, too, and how the price issue made them unable to compete, but he also said that he estimated the price per barrel would be about $100 if they scaled up with current technology, IIRC.
At the cusp of 500k subs as of writing this! Congrats guys!
Its at 499k!
Edit: over 500k now! Sweet!
501k now!
Fantastic footage, as always! Thank you!
huge fan bro nice video
I love so much your voice when you speak so tranquilly ! It gives us less energy but more intimate understanding of science.
I love when he gets intimate with me UwU
This reminds me of a paper I wrote in HS about how we could use phytoplankton to help combat pollution. Not exactly an academic masterpiece but it was a fun look into learning about alternatives using these tiny but large parts of our world.
Thanks you so much! This was wonderful and inspiring!
I love this channel keep on doing what you are doing
Do an episode on dinoflagellates and their serial secondary and tertiary acquisition of plastids.
Algae is a potentially cheaper version of solar panels with a cheaper and denser way to store the energy it produces. Algal oil is also a terrific source of ω-3 fatty acids! The bio-available kind too!
There may also be a time where conventional oil costs that $300+ per barrel. And the cost of algae fuel production will also come down.
I once contemplated making biofuel from algae to make a few bucks - but the extraction process required too much energy and jacked up the cost too high. Making gobs of algae is pretty easy though, and that process sinks a lot of CO2 from the atmosphere.
As always, phenomenally cool.
do avideo on spangnum moss?
Hitting us right where it hurts with the snack reaching thing right off the bat!
Love you hank ❤
Great philosophical rant Hank. 10\10 am gonna recommend!! ^_^
sitting in a bubble of my own creation is my favourite
I want to go back to this calm spacey music. x
Welcome back!
for real, we need a channel like this on brazil, most of people here does not understand english, for lucky i understand a little bit, but i would stay more confortable if the content was on my language
Its like every video is somebody scoping my brain out then throwing on a wall, they putting it back together perfectly, maybe even a little better.
How do these algae use the oil?
I guess for food, but why/how? and why don't other microbes?
I would guess it's their version of body fat
@@limiv5272 If the lipids produced are shed as droplets, it's their waste product, not an energy reserve.
It amazes me that pretty much all animal life is reliant on the oxygen created by photosynthesising creatures like cyanobacteria and algae 2.2B years ago.
That our species has managed to consume so much of these eons of distilled solar energy in a couple of hundred years says a lot about humans gluttony.
@@jimurrata6785 You brought up a good point, if the fat droplets were for energy storage the cells wouldn't just release them. According to my short google search, they make a lipid biofilm. That sounds very cool
When's the next window for grabbing music? I missed the pre-order >.
Are we not gonna talk about the fact that every shot was at 630x magnification with a scale bar of 31 micrometres? Is there a treasure hunt afoot? Is this a clue?
I've been following this channel for a while and just today I realized that Hank Green is the narrator.
Holy fudge! How did I not know about this channel?
How do cells in a small multicellular organism like the tardigrade communicate and coordinate with each other?
Molecular signals. You don't need muscles and neurons to move, look at plants
4:50 poor bear
I see a few diatoms with oil on or in them. Are they capable of producing oil like the Botryococcus.
Started watching these while I eat, but I’m caught up now. I fear I may starve to death.
Deep thoughts from shallow waters.
Ever since I understood the origin of mitochondria, i've wondered if we couldn't perhaps do something similar: engineer a microbe that devotes its entire existence to energy production so that we can harvest the energy for ourselves. Like a battery that naturally recharges itself over time or something. If evolution can do it, surely we can mimic it, right?
someone out to try and just throw wood in a buried hole to make oil. Digging up the garden I noticed that 3 feet down ANY wood had carbonized into charcoal. The remaining key is to use pressure gradients(different size rocks) to oxidize the mass inside the various layers of shale. Lastly, the hydro source is likely just underground water being split in a mechanism akin to an aspirator pump... where the jet is pointing upwards and being driven by evaporation...
random thoughts ... it's probably just a fantasy tho ...
What's the name of that fractal Piramide looking algae at 2:25?
very cool
But I _do_ want to chill out in a bubble of my own making when things get though...
"...and growing algae does not come with a manual.."
I guess you guys never had any fish tanks. Leave the lights on steady for a week and I'll have a few ounces for ya. Wet weight. 🤣
2:39 Also a thing that I think already a longer time about. Well, first off, "off the shelf" / garden variety algae (probably) won't cut the mustard. As the C3 photosynthesis process is very inefficient. We need an alga ... do we really need an alga? Isn't (in a technical application like this) a chloroplast more efficient? Well, we need an organism that takes in the nutrients provided, including sunlight, and excretes oil, with an efficient rate as high as possible. It does not being able to fight off any virus nor other organism. Protection from mutations would come in handy, though.
While I would love to, I'll have to leave the details to people way smarter than I am.
Making biofuels while oxidizing the world's oceans seems like a great idea
500k subs!
Can you do a video talking about what you think Mars microbial life is like
Is? We don't know if it ever existed, let alone that it still does
This guy seems to be high on algae and I like that
My best friend, It's always great. I wish you every day of your development. Have a happy day!
Alternative title: "Algae -- Will It Blend?"
EROEI is the key: Energy Return Of Energy Invested.
If much bigger than 1 then is profitable.
It really takes my mind somewhere else.....
Incidentally the OST for this episode had major C-418 vibes, go check them out they were the composer for Minecraft.
0:40 - 0:52 Wanda Maximoff, is that you? 🥴😂
Last I heard, some lipid (oil intensive) algae thus far lab developed, hybridized(?), have been able to attain almost 90% lipid content. In consumer-speak that means the algae cell is almost 90% vegetable oil. Algae grows fast, isn't picky about the water quality (can be free sewer facility discharge effluent water and the waste CO2 from those facilities) if grown for fuels. Isn't too picky about its neighborhood (location). Does need sunlight, CO2, and proper lighting if there's nighttime operation. We can do algae biocrude probably easier, cheaper, than bringing fossil crude from halfway around the world, interfering with global politics for that reason etc.. And it brings the "oil industry" and those jobs home to the USA, in terms of providing energy related science/technology jobs regionally here in the USA!! Like they say: "We need to be the change." Btw.. the oxygen gas and sludge byproduct from algae biocrude production are also valuable commodities.
Keep in mind, algae doesn't require agricultural/food-grade cropland quality potable water. For algae biocrude production, since we're not going to be eating the biocrude fuels, non-potable water would probably work just fine. Same with the land-use location. Doesn't need to be expensive real estate or food cropland. Any land location that gets some reasonable sunlight. My thinking is that some of this information is biased against economic aspects of fuel algae production. I think they must've used Perrier for the water. Did not consider availability of nuisance, byproduct (waste) CO2, which is abundant, just has lots of protectionist laws that impede use/research as a commodity of value, rather it's usually just "by law" vented to the atmosphere or some non-economically threatening disposal mechanism. Similarly top-dollar was probably paid for tanks of CO2 from existing for-profit sources..
Isn't algae the thing that is currently generating most of the O2 in the planet? If that is so, then maybe it would be a bad idea having people using them as fuel
Do a video on utricularia pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!
The Vorticella has to beat it's cilia to get it's snack. That seems like an awful lot of work.
Sooooo...if it becomes affordable we will have a gas har har . seriously always great content.
Which microscope you use
fat droplets in yogurt looks pretty rad
UA-cam didn't notify me of this video
Nobody accounts for the externalities like the military investment and environmental cost in the price of oil
Are you trying to get us assassinated by the oil industry? :P
God: **designs humans to be capable of complex thoughts and forms of self expression and entertainment**
Humans: I wish I were a microbe
God: **surprised Pikachu face**
Did you just smear some yogurt on a slide and put it under the microscope?
600 Bells even Steven!😎
i just found out that this is hank's voice. wtf it's so strange hearing him speaking calmly that sounds another person LMAO
Biofuel will probably be the poor man’s fuel in the future
Cool to learn about! Hopefully we won't need them to fuel ICE vehicles by the time they are at cost parity... I'd worry some company may try to claim it as greener/cleaner to burn because of the source.
The source is carbon neutral though so it is cleaner than fossil fuels though...
Fossil fuels are ultimately carbon neutral.
(If you want to go back to an atmosphere that didn't support animal life)
Clean burning Carbon Negative Algae Bio Fuel would of been well established in the US ( and elsewhere) 8-10 years ago if it wasn’t for Fracking. That artificially brought Oil prices right down, just at the time when Algae growers in the US were preparing to scale up for fuel production!
Would food seaweed prices go up if algae officially becomes the main source for car fuels?
"All aquatic photosynthetic organisms" is a bit too broad a definition for algae. Sea grass is one counter-example; cyanobacteria is another.
We need more research and development in that area, could be in major factor in limiting climate change!
could you take a look at T-cells?
Did someone say oil 🛢️ ? 💂🔫🚁🚀💣
I thought the point of renewables was to stop producing our energy by burning oil--which produces co2 and other green house gases. Wouldn't burning oil produced by Algae just perpetuate that problem?
The "greenhouse gas effect" was proven wrong by me and many people...
Sea glass has another meaning and I live is Seaham.
Future Man is real!
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake comes to life
What about harvesting the juice of the gasoline rabbit?
Ok, hear me out. I've heard that if we seed the ocean with iron, it would encourage an algae bloom, which could help clear up CO2 in our atmosphere. That would require a lot of iron, so would that not be a good impetus to start space mining so we could have enough iron to use in that sort of project and then collect the algae to be used as fuel/oil?
And what would that do to the balance of our oceans ecosystem?
We're reliant on the oceans for food, and so is everything that lives in them.
How would this planet react to vast amounts of input to what has for the past billions of years been pretty much a closed system?
What's the cost/benefit of expending huge amounts of energy to mine asteroids and return pre to the earth?
@@jimurrata6785 Well given that an algae bloom would provide large amounts of food to every other animal in the ocean, I can only imagine that being a huge benefit for the food chain. I imagine there would be other implications that I'm not aware of, but it would definitely have upsides besides the carbon aspect. As for the cost, I imagine the gains from having a functioning space mining industry would be vast enough on it's own to justify it.
@@JamesRoyceDawson You don't really have a grip on balance or moderation do you?
How do you think sea creatures are going to breathe with their gills clogged with algae?
What about all the life in the sea that relies on the sunlight that would be blocked/absorbed?
Photosynthesis is _not_ a particularly efficient process either....
You "heard" about something that has been tried (on a smaller scale) already.
It was an absolute failure.
@@jimurrata6785 There's no reason to get combative over this. I'm just suggesting an idea. I'll admit I'm no expert and this could be a terrible idea.
That said, I don't think your point about algae clogging gills or blocking sunlight really holds water. Depending on the size of and locations of the algae blooms, I think it could be relatively controlled as we would manage the food supply and thus the upper limit of how much algae could survive. It could get out of hand, but I think that's a measure of how well it would need to be controlled, not a reason to rule out the idea completely
I wish I could have the tardigrade's ability of cryptobiosis.
We have to do complicated things for our survival because complicated things made us so good at survival. The fastest, easiest, cheapest thing to do for our survival is to have less babies.
Huh my second name translate "beerbrewer" 😅😂(not joke)
Ай билиив ю :)
Can you upload microscopic videos of Corona Vaccines?
Dr. Kane sent me here.