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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2012
- Call it "fuel without fossils": Jonathan Trent is working on a plan to grow new biofuel by farming micro-algae in floating offshore pods that eat wastewater from cities. Hear his team's bold vision for Project OMEGA (Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae) and how it might power the future.
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im a student at university Studying Chemical engineering and its replenish-able fuel sources like these that get me excited ! but I would also like to see this type of technology implemented on house hold roof tops, this would be less intrusive and utilize "dead space" and even contribute to a house holds cooling during the day !
A great idea. It must have many applications, as we don't all live in UK with it's somewhat unpredictable weather!
Hi May I know is the algae mentioned in this video had been genetically engineered? It will be very useful for me in my academic presentation next monday! TQ!
yeah, that would be cool, but I think that this system needs to be put in water. If rooftops get too hot or too cold, the algae dies, and there is nothing such as waves on rooftops that would contribute to algae mixing.
It should be possible to put an Algae system on an empty wall.
America can be powered by Algae in an area as big as a state.
There is an "algae house", since 2013: www.buildup.eu/en/practices/cases/biq-house-first-algae-powered-building-world
Thank you for your answer!
Great Ideas, I'm hopeful for the future again.
Cheers
Suddenly I feel proud I´m proud I minored fresh water phycology, that I'm mayoring algae biotechnology and that I´m serving my internship in a laboratory that is researching algal biofuel.
host: so your not patenting it...
jon: no, its open to the world
gave me chills...... great work my guy!!
Annnd -
its been 8 years since this was taped - and I still fail to hear any coastal city having such a system and generationg surplus by it. Which is weird, because blackwater recycling is an highly profitable business, society pays that sevice well. With the added income of fuel algae - this technology should be a moneypress.
Buuuut no takers....wonder why.
@Rey De Guzman
Well in my case - no capital, no proficiency in any related field, no business capabilities.
In your case? Dunno, you tell me.
But since there is a LOT of profit-seeking capital out there, and if some project can be painted green thats a big PR bonus....
I guess the system still has "kinks" that make it non-tenable even for venture capital.
Things that work and earn money get done. Thats the system we live in.
Great talk; awesome idea
nice concept......
hope to see implemented !!!
Thank you.
Hi just wondering what course you will be doing at uni to get into renewable energy. I too am thinking of enrolling for next year but i am unsure what course to do
good idea. we need some progress on this
This is incredible!
good to know.
thanks
j
Wonderful ideas and concepts. Also who thought this guy sounds and looks like Robin Williams?
RW lived in the bay area. so does this guy. Probably the same accent, ish.
fantastic!!
I hope this helps us in the future
The general idea sounds good, but it's still really hard to extract oil from the algae efficiently. And if it depends on high-lipid GMO strains then there's the constant problem of contamination (lots of other, hardier stuff will also grow in wastewater). It might be more efficient to let it dry out and just burn the biomass directly, or use it as a basis for soil/fertilizer.
Hence the unending R&D.
Hydrothermal liquefaction of the algae to convert it to oil!
what software were used for making the first animation? I really like it
Good Job TED
Yes, please!! Know what's your passion and go for it fearlessly. The solution is not yet discovered and it need a lot more people and work!
This man a some serious ideas. I hope he is taken seriously by the U.S government to make it work. But the government won't pay too much attention to it because it might affect their lobbyist and especial interest. With that being said, I'm a fan of his ideas. I wish I had the money to fund his project and brilliant ideas.
+Winston Quezada I really admire his ideas too. This actually could be practiced pretty well at archipelagic countries as well. Glad that there are still people who do good for the sake of environment.
+Winston... I first started following Algae as a bio-fuel candidate in around 2009. So far, it has just been a disaster. Unfortunately, it is expensive and in many cases has a negative energy return. It's a shame, but if this ever works, it's probably decades away.
I also studied the effects and potential use of algaes and better way of producing it. I discovered that some of species of algea can provide food for human with healthy nutrients. If only can produce and select it's species properly. If done this in a large scale of area it would solve the global hunger.
+jay ord... We burn over 10 calories of FF for every calorie of food we produce and that is just the western average, America is worse. We humans are the SUVs of the animal kingdom. Getting this number to zero is going to be an incredibly difficult endeavor. Maybe if we find a salt water algae that is good for food or fuel and find a way to deliver sea-water to the desert for free (or close to it), then maybe we can do something like feed people.
This sounds great.
Fantastic
Totally agree.
Innovation is key to future energy developments
Could the algae be grown at an accelerate rate by iron fertilization of the open ocean? Ships similar to oil tankers with netting or filters could collect the surplus algae and carry it to refineries or perhaps the refining could be accomplished on-board with the tankers arriving at port carrying crude oil or some other precursor.
you could mess up the ocean food chain pretty bad, like deadzone bad if done poorly. Also the percent that is collect would have to pay for the iron which may be difficult. Maybe a controlled system that uses this principal but is enclosed onshore and intakes seawater, adds iron and treated wastewater, grows non invasive algae, then algae is collected and water is returned (maybe into protected fish ponds)
@@toddanderson7484 would you rather it be the pacific garbage patch or the pacific algae patch and the big ships manufacture the algae into fuel on the spot and then when its tanks are full it delivers it. The ocean is like most of the surface. You could grow a lot on land various different ways and actually have a supply that makes it worth it
This is what I visioned for SeaRanch Farms 😊
Which universities do you know that offer that?
This is great! I still believe that modern agriculture will outcompete this because we already have the infrastructure and it's cheaper to implement, but I'd like to see these compete for prices. Also the algae would be better for oils or biofuels and plastics while ag would be for alcohols and composites and fibers.
Btw I am aware of the extremely fast growth of algaes.
My first encounter with algae chicken feeds. For fillet machines. The protein on algae are high and non saturated
Let's do both!
awesome
what about plastic being photodegradable? how long would we use the plastic that incubates the algae before the plastic's toxic material leaks out into the ocean?
3:00 Are those floaters? :0
Awesome
i like how everyone is considering the sea but ignoring the vast tracks of land in USA that is unused or barren of any other industrial purpose.
There are all of these great ideas from TED conferences that I don't see in my state of Missouri. (Except for Factor E Farm) Where are the people on the internet that I can make connections with, to effect positive change?
Awe!
Some!
How does the algae absorb carbon from the air in an enclosed system?
i wish they where open about the economic costs in this video. Even when I look for it, I can not find much on how much this would cost as a fuel source. It seemed to me that when he did talk about the economics, that he was saying it was not good without saying anything. If we got this via mass production in every major port city in the US, what would the end cost per gallon of bio-fuel cost?
Fucking brilliant! I hope to live to see this kind of innovation change my world.
our car ran on canola for years :)
The tube design in no longer moduled though. So if it leak, the entire system would drain no?
That man is perhaps one of the most advanced people on the planet! for the benefit of man and earth he does this!
I think the point of being on the sea was to do with the waste treatment of big cities is most commonly pumped into the sea and this algae system would effectively use that system to produce fuel.
While different, the world looks just as able to support Human life in future decades and centuries, if we listen to and help people like this. Complacency will be our undoing.
What happens if a tidal wave or tornado or hurricane hits these systems? Have you begun to think about what could and may inevitabley happen under such circumstance?
The same thing as anything else.
He did mention that, the algae die, fish eat what's left, the sewers are often already dumped into the ocean with some processing, much like he covered. The most extreme failure of the system is really just releasing to the ocean what we already are.
mind blown
Jonathan,
Your theory, seems plausible. And I realize we have to have alternative fuels, you must be aware of the enormous power of the major corp's, they will eventually crush your (our) expectations. Big oil and the other's will never let this happen, but it's worth the fight.
Jim E.
He wasn't saying that those additional energy systems were required to make his OMEGA system work rather that his system could easily integrate additional systems on to his acreage. The artist rendition shows how solar panels could be added to walkways, wave generators could be placed on the borders, etc. The mollusks aqua-culture is easily added to the infrastructural supports.
The one drawback is that this is still a carbon fuel and as such will involve a CO2 release with combustion.
Didn't talk about biofouling and internal cleaning of the system
If the plastic enclosure is sealed, how it will be able to sequester CO2 from the air?
DAMN!
I have been a proponent of making each human dwelling a self sufficient "cellular" structure but that would only work for low density living environments. It would simply cost more resources to have a waste management system built into every apartment in a 300 000 dwelling city tower, than having each tower produce and re-use it's own resources. For that to become possible we need to work on these modular system that work on their own or collected for mass production as this presentation shows!
you can do that also with hemp bro... the machine thing i mean
That a brilliant statement. Really, Biofuels have both short and long run advantages over solar power and electric cars. In the short term, there is reasonable application of bio-fuels to replace oil in cars without signification changes to cars. Once solar and electric cars become a reality, it will take ~15 years to realistically be off oil. So if we can make biofuel by 2020 as oil prices or less then we are off oil by 2025, solar and electric cars it is 2040.
Would it be wise to invest in stocks in companies developing these kinds of energy and also new materials such as graphene?
Why are we still not doing it?
How many KW per litre!?
if you used a container ship as a farm you wouldn't get in the way of marine traffic and wouldn't need to wait on waste water treatment plants and wouldn't need to take extra time to harvest. You could farm and refine on the ship. Then sail to a dock on land to unload your fuel. Second benefit is that you clean the ocean
cool idea!
Your idea, as a concept is good, the problem is cost of low desity plastic vs cost of a container ship, this kind of proyects are already really dificult to implement while beeing at the same time profitable.
We already have oil container ships. They would just need to change some on board tech.
A brilliant idea. Let's see if it can become reality. There is no such thing as too much R&D.
Well no crap. That would be why I asked about "mass production in every major port city in the US, what would the end cost per gallon of bio-fuel cost?" and not, what would be the costs of doing this on a small scale. Though, it is always good to look at both smaller and large scale production. Could this idea some how be done cheaply on cattle farms and such, which would be a small scale, but might be low cost too?
In case of a hurricane or another nature atmospheric phenomenon, have an option?
Of course. I meant that a surplus of energy has been produced with fusion, i.e. less energy has been used to creating it than what it has produced.
It's not that far away actually. There are major advancements in that field, and recently they've managed to actually create energy by fusion. I think it's a few decades away.
While hemp does very will vs many standard crops, it does not come even close to the range of between soy and sunflower. At between 50-80 gallons per acre per year from what I can find from science papers.
haha, well yes it would be a single"building" but from some prototypes that I have seen coming out of Japan you would have 1km+ high super towers with all the amenities of modern life such as parks, entertainment, public transport within the city as well as between "cities". Obviously that requires a different scale of energy/resource production than a home for a family of 4.
Energy is always made by fusion, the question is if you get much more than you put in the first place. Unless you get a return of about 7 or 8 to one, its not worth the bother. And when you achieve THAT, its still a question of keeping a stable (material wise) reactor that is going to be operable for many years on end - otherwise what you have is a scientific achievement and curiosity, but of not much use.
I think in the near term the "power amplifier" concept of a reactor is more viable.
He is right on the money when he talks about the integration of our systems, but this specific project's design falls short by continuing to aim at centralized power and waste-treatment facilities. Investors and businesses could capitalize off a centralized system and would likely disagree with me. But I think the decentralization of our systems in the form of a grid or network of systems dispersed throughout our communities will be a better approach in the long run.
So many questions… What happens when someone flushes cleaner? If the algae is used for aquaculture how would harmful bacteria/diseases in wastewater not be passed on to us? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just use the wastewater as fertilizer than to have to grow algae to use?
How can I get involved with this?
That's what we want to hear.
Short E Study?
For sure, but that still makes sense as it's a single entity/vision/idea. Whereas our modern day cities are horribly designed (or just not designed period) for any kind of sustainability. If we think of a city as one building then it makes sense for a single or perhaps a few redundant systems to tackle jobs with in. Same difference really. Just larger scale. I'm all for the building of homes and recreational spaces into the sky.
The future does not lie in one solution, but many solutions all working towards one goal.
However, this is one of the first comprehensive plans for how to make a system that integrates multiple environment-friendly sources of energy, food, etc.
As for "THE" answer - Nuclear reactors can provide more than enough power for the energy needs of the entire human population, given the amount of fuel reserves we have. It produces waste, but not impractical amounts, and safety hasn't been a real issue in a while. Given enough investment in the field, it's more viable than most alternatives.
I applaud Trent and his team for trying something new, but the many unknowns Trent refers to prove that his dream is a FANTASY in the real world. Why have none of these commercial systems been built??? "Some source of CO2", out at sea. Hmmm. Trent's "off-shore structures" would have no impact on marine organisms or shipping channels, and would be unaffected in severe weather... yada, yada, yada. "Trained seals for cleaning"?? "Protected bay.. somewhere in the world"... Even Trent's own assertions that this is not viable economically unless you consider myriad unrelated economic drivers (plastic mulch, wast water, carbon markets, etc...) Plus, unfortunately, the solvent process typically required to harvest oil from algae is heavily patent protected and would restrict the ability of most technologies to ever be commercially viable.
This is a great idea. And his lavender shirt looks fabulous. I'm just saying.
very mean, very dope solarpunk aesthetic. 🌞⚙️🌻
Green New Deal. ♥️😎🌹
wow i hope this really comes true. let's hope they can put a stop to fossil fuels.
We need fossil fuels. Plus fossil fuels is a lie. Crude oil is algae oil mostly. Its jjst way older and it kinda got naturally formed on the earth. This fuel is great because its nearly the same thing and the alge sucls up contaminants
@TheAnnoyingBoss we need fossil fuels for now, but what happens when we run out. We need better alternatives
I agree but think about the number of people and the time it would take. As opposed to mass scale production. Also you would have to teach everything to a very large amount of people. I think large scale production is really the only viable option.
Interesting...
i agree with misskee11. the biggest obstacle is that energy sources are not internationally networked. (solar in morroco,wind energy in france,wave energy from britain) all networked and re routed according to generation surplus and consumption. the probelm is more political than scientific. Nuclear and coal should be kept as supplemental peak power compensation.
What if we built these balloon things and released them into the arctic for things to use as habitation until we can get the ice back?
he sounds like Kevin Flynn from Tron xD
in there is a new world!
in there is our future.
in there is our destiny!
i'm speaking of course of our day to day transportation. bio fuels have their place with other sorts of vehicles, jets and so on, like bulldozers and such. bio fuels "if" coming from a source such as this or hemp.
j
How do you control which algae grows? Just thinking of potentially harmful algal blooms unintentionally being introduced to the environment
It would be the same type of algae introduced to the system, the likelyhood of the algae evolving from a freshwater algae to a salt water algae is insignificant. These things also seem to require maintenance, and they would likely monitor algae growth.
Algae is very positive for environment clean up air cleaner
it is helpful to Bio diesle
If this is top-notch green engineering (and it sure seems like that to me), and it's a long shot by the designer's own admission, then we should really prepare ourselves for a nasty energy crunch in the near future.
Open source is changing the world for the better!
OMEGA System; This could save out coast. We need to get on this boat, and real soon. Vancouver Island has many outflow pipes. The most recent is going through a consultation process where it is coming up against a lot of road blocks. This OMEGA system could improve the marine environment, and eventually pay for itself. What are we waiting for? Even if there are flaws to work out, it can't be worse than how the mollusks are suffering from too much CO2 now. The Scallop industry has already taken a serious hit with long-time businesses have to close. The last few years have seen the aquaculture industry explode on the coast of BC; So, with respect to ocean levels of CO2 we need to do the right thing. And that is not what we 'have' been doing.
good to know, but what i like about it is you don't need land to grow it.
j
except if you will use heterogeneous process, etcv.. but very expensive and use lot of energy..
why does it have to float int he ocean? why not use it in farmlands and pump the "treated" water onto the fields to irrigate the crops? Maybe even spread the sludge as a fertilizer? The only think i can think that the ocean provides is to help keep the growing medium cool. Could this just as easily be done thew a heat x-fer system with the water being pumped out of the aquifer that supplies the water tot he city that makes the waste water int he first place?
3:50
Is the amount of C02 recaptured quantifiable or by weight significant? Current carbon credits sell for ~$25/tonne. Unfortunately since he didn't mention it, i'm assuming he's smart and it's a "no".
Biology student here, And I'm Exited
try going LFTR first - much lower tech required, and practically done already in the 1960s with a fraction of waste per watt then conventional nuclear.
Intriguing idea to start with, but ultimately the yields are laughably low.
Other technologies are orders of magnitude more efficient in terms or capital investment and terrain needs, as well as being A LOT more effective.
Thorium, Solar even.... not to mention the ever more likely prospect of fusion (Laser)
5:05 - 5:10 had me laughing my ass off.
1. Biofuels, as they are used now, are highly ineffective and do very little, accounting for only 3% of transportation energy and less the 1% of our total energy usage. The real point of making Biofuels and we are currently is to develop the market and technology so we can create a useful Biofuels system in the future.
2. As stated in 1, our current Biofuels is only useful to allow something like ultra productive algae production to happen.
где перевод?
nice idea, but i think tis very inefficient. If you need additional solar, wind and wave power collectors + fish farms in the system to make it work, the margin energy output must be very low and costs of production and maintaining the system quite high. Might not be worth it...
Dear past,
Why didn't you do this already?