Green Gas (literally)

ften you will find environmentalists fervently advocating a new policy or shift in policies due to anecdotal evidence, showing an insufficient regard for basic cost-benefit analyzes or facts in general. Don’t believe me? Remember when nuclear power plants were the cause célèbre of the 1970s for various unsubstantiated threats posed by the evolving energy source. The early environmentalist movement decried them for their safety hazards (though more people die every year in mining accidents, ahem coal power, then every have from nuclear incidents) and for fear of the “China Syndrome” leaping from film to reality. Now many of those same people now run (perhaps rightfully so) away from carbon emissions and have come to realize the benefits of nuclear power for curbing greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Similarly, popular opinion was swayed by our ever-greener society and ever-greedier politicians [at the Iowa Caucuses] toward biofuels, specifically corn-based ethanol. Oops! Wow, that’s less efficient and more polluting than Texas Tea ever was. The world desperately needs a solution that can ensure energy independence and environmental regeneration at an affordable price.

Today, the landscape changed as Sapphire Energy unveiled its pet project. The San Diego based company have been working on algae-based diesel and gasoline that will be processed at existing refineries, dispensed at your corner gas station and will power existing cars without any fancy engine add-ons. The only requirement for production? Algae + CO₂ + Water = Green Crude Production. According to the LA Times, Sapphire Energy’s Chief Executive, Jason Pyle, “described the expected cost as competitive with extracting oil from deep-water deposits and oil sands.”

According to the year old company, it can use any kind of water (non-potable, salt, you name it) and the US Department of Energy claimed in a Salt Lake Tribune article, “algae could replace all the petroleum consumed in the United States on an area not much larger than Maryland.” (Brian Maffly. The Salt Lake Tribune, March 25, 2008.) A New York Times article this past December stated, “An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It would not require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water and could consume pollutants from sewage and power plants.” Not only can we use water pulled straight from the Pacific but we can build greenhouses in places that otherwise would not support agricultural production. In other words, there will be reduced demand for food-bearing land and no more corn ethanol, possibly leading to a drop in global food prices.

Jed Clampett might’ve called it Green Tea

What’s the catch? Well right now the process only exists in the laboratory. Sapphire Energy says a pilot is a year away and scalable production still 3 years away. Low emissions, improved energy independence, reduced international stress, decreased food costs and immediate functionality with existing products on the market seems to make this green fuel well worth the wait. If all this is true, the ramifications of this discovery shift the global energy paradigm (beware: gratuitous business clichés) and may be the beginning of revolutionary geopolitical changes. At the very least we have a climate change solution that might stand up to closer analysis. Take a lesson environmentalists, capitalism may save us all.