[Greenbuilding] Algae

[RT]

On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 05:04:36 -0500, Lance Collins <lcollins.au at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> the exciting topic of using algae for bio-sequestration of coal-fired
> power station emissions.

> MBD their emphasis is more on GM algae for fuel production whereas MBD  
> think the more
> important products are food for people, animals and fish
> farms.  Recently on a visit to China the speaker said the Chinese
> were not interested in oil but in food for aqua-culture.  Has MBD
> been able to supply they were offered an immediate order for a
> million tons a year.


Okay. If anyone has a gripe about my prolonging this OT thread, y'all can  
blame Lance for starting it.

I remember mentioning algae's capacity/potential for amelioration of GHG  
emissions/ bio-sequestration/power production on this List a year or two  
or three ago and it garnered the same response then as now -- a seeming  
lack of interest.

Most peculiar. Eh what ?

What caught my eye in Lance's post was the mention of "GM algae".
"Hmmm" I hummed to myself as I squinted with one eye, as one might when  
seeing a shady-looking character lurking about one's neighbourhood.

(This from a fellow who recently enjoyed consuming an algae-like, black,  
hair-like fungus/seaweed (aka "Phat Choy") a must-have item during the  
Lunar New Year dinners).


And to put the "million tons a year" order into some perspective...

Years ago, a house-mate from First Year university who dropped out of 1st  
yr engineering at Univ of Waterloo to head out to British Columbia to  
design/build a recording studio and subsequently invented a hand-held  
acoustic analyser which subsequently made him wealthy enough to take a few  
years off to circumnavigate the globe which of course took him to China  
(and Lance's Oz of course) at a time before China had opened up to the  
West ... and upon his return from China he came to visit me while I was at  
school for some other degree ... and he talked about the number of buttons  
on the Mao-style Chinese shirt that he was wearing, which was almost the  
universal garb for urban Chinese in China at that time.

He mentioned that if the design of the shirt called for just one more  
button, another button factory would have had to be built just to provide  
the capacity to supply that additional button in the quantities needed.

An order for a "million tons a year of algae for aqua-culture" ?
Pwah! A mere drop in the ocean. [he says with an evil wink]
When it comes to algae we should be talking luma-tonnes (10^63 ) at the  
very least.
The GHG problem is *that* significant. Isn't it ?
After all, haven't we just had a lengthy thread about *some* people  
abandoning Earth because humans have messed it up so badly ?

Reminder: Lance started this thread. Blame him.
Thengya. Thengyallverramuch.



-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a >
manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply"
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