Blatant Reality

Looks like several research centers in St. Louis will be receiving some money in the sums of millions of dollars to conduct important algae biofuel research.

St. Louis institutions will get millions of dollars to accelerate developments in alternative energy including trailblazing work to produce fuel from algae, the Energy Department has announced.

 

The new federal effort, the Energy Frontier Research Center Awards, will give $2 million to $5 million annually for five years to 46 projects across the country.

 

The St. Louis-based Center for Advanced Biofuel Systems at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center will explore increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis in plants like algae. Algae generates an oil that can be converted into a biodiesel fuel.

You know what this means? I will hopefully be able to go see some of the research myself at these labs over the summer! Yes!

This is shaping up to be a really good summer.

If you didn’t see this already, Gateway Pundit linked to my story on Obama signing the GIVE Act. Check out his story here. Thanks for the link GP.

Many of you might not know this but the controversial GIVE Act was signed into law today. Yea, I know, how could you have missed the news that the bill, which included language prohibiting volunteer members from participating in religious activities, got signed into law?

Well, I think part of it has to do with the fact that they are now calling it by another name: the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. However, don’t be fooled because H.R. 1388, Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (GIVE Act), is the bill that actually got signed by the president.

How do I know the bill signed by Obama was H.R. 1388? Well, the Serve America Act (S. 277) (sponsored by Kennedy) just made it out of committee but was never even voted on in either the House of Representatives of the Senate. What seems to have happened was that the Serve America Act was adopted as an amendment to the GIVE Act.

Therefore, H.R. 1388 ( the GIVE Act) was passed by both chambers and handed to the president yesterday to sign (which he did today). Since the signing seems to have been reported after 5:00pm EST, I’m assuming that the records on GovTrack.us will show that it was signed into law when they update it sometime tomorrow or in the near future.

Now, why is the GIVE Act so controversial? Well, most of the controversy revolves around this section:

SEC. 1310. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

 

Subtitle C of title I (42 U.S.C. 12571 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 132 the following:

 

‘SEC. 132A. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

 

‘(a) Prohibited Activities- An approved national service position under this subtitle may not be used for the following activities:

 

‘(1) Attempting to influence legislation.

 

‘(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.

 

‘(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.

 

‘(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.

 

‘(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to Federal office or the outcome of an election to a State or local public office.

 

‘(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.

 

‘(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of proselytization, consistent with section 132.

 

‘(8) Consistent with section 132, providing a direct benefit to any–

 

‘(A) business organized for profit;

 

‘(B) labor union;

 

‘(C) partisan political organization;

 

‘(D) nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, except that nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and

 

‘(E) organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7), unless the position is not used to support those religious activities.

 

‘(9) Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services.

 

‘(10) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive.

 

‘(11) Carrying out such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.

 

‘(b) Ineligibility- No assistance provided under this subtitle may be provided to any organization that has violated a Federal criminal statute.

 

‘(c) Nondisplacement of Employed Workers or Other Volunteers- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not be directed to perform any services or duties, or to engage in any activities, prohibited under the nonduplication, nondisplacement, or nonsupplantation requirements relating to employees and volunteers in section 177.’.

The original language that got people all up in arms back in mid-march was a little more explicit in what and who it banned. Take a look:

SEC. 1304. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

 

Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575) is amended to read as follows:

 

SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

 

(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:

 

(1) Attempting to influence legislation.

 

(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.

 

…

 

(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.

Now it seems from the current, signed version that the writers of the bill tried to tone it down for the version reported earlier in March. For example, they rephrased “A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities” in Sec 125 (a) to read “An approved national service position under this subtitle may not be used for the following activities” in Sec 132 (a) of the new version. In conjunction with this, they also added the phrase “consistent with section 132″ to the end of Sec 132 (a)(1) which didn’t appear in the original version.

Now, I don’t know how the new phrasing will affect what those participating in the “National Service Trust Program” but it still seems to me that religious and free speech rights will be greatly hampered if you take part. However, I think it will take a court case and a couple first amendment lawyers to sort out how this law will/should apply.

However, right now I’m just wondering how signing this $5,700,000,000 act correlates with the mere $100,000,000 he decided cut from the budget yesterday.

It seems like every single week an algae company announces another breakthrough. This week, it seems like it is OriginOil’s turn.

In the press release shown below, OriginOil seems to have broken the last big boundary holding the algae industry back: the ability to efficiently (aka cheaply) harvest the oil from algae. There newest technique allows them to separate the oil, water, and biomass without any chemicals or heavy machinery.

OriginOil Announces Breakthrough Process to Extract Oil from Algae

 

Company to Rapidly Commercialize Patent-Pending, Single-Step Extraction Process

 

Los Angeles, CA April 20, 2009 – OriginOil, Inc. (OOIL), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum, today announced an innovative single-step process to extract oil from algae. In addition to integrating this process into its own production system, OriginOil plans to rapidly commercialize the patent-pending process for use by others in the fast-growing algae industry.

 

Initial testing indicates that the new algae oil extraction process is simpler and more efficient than current systems, without requiring chemicals or significant capital expenditure for heavy machinery.

 

A dramatic time-lapse video posted today at www.originoil.com begins with a batch of algae that has just gone through OriginOil’s process. In less than an hour, the oil, water and biomass separate by gravity alone. Unlike conventional systems, no chemicals or heavy machinery are used in this single-step process, and no initial dewatering is required.

 

“Throughout the world, algae production is becoming a fact, but it still has to be harvested efficiently,” said Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil. “Our breakthrough technology accomplishes key parts of the harvesting process in a single, cost-effective step. We are planning to make our new technology available to our fast-growing industry.”

 

The company recently filed for patent protection of the new algae oil extraction process, its seventh patent application, entitled “Device and Method for Separation, Cell Lysing and Flocculation of Algae From Water.” OriginOil CTO Dr Vikram Pattarkine said, “With this new process, we have greatly improved on our previous harvesting technology. We now have a single device and process that we will optimize and scale up in upcoming trials for commercialization.”

 

Harvesting algae is a challenge. Algae grow suspended in large volumes of water. Once ready for harvest, the algae culture must be concentrated and the oil extracted from each cell. Then, the oil, water and biomass must all be separated for processing. The new OriginOil process achieves all these steps in one pass.

 

In the process, the company’s Quantum Fracturing™ combines with electromagnetism and pH modification to break down cell walls, thereby releasing the oil within these cells. Algae oil rises to the top for skimming and refining, while the remaining biomass settles to the bottom for further processing as fuel and other valuable products.

 

CEO Riggs Eckelberry will provide process details at the National Algae Association’s Forum on April 30, 2009. Meanwhile, he will discuss the technology and OriginOil’s work with the Department of Energy on scaling up biofuels production in Washington, DC this week. “The Obama Administration has targeted renewable energy for 10 million new jobs in the next decade,” concluded Eckelberry. “OriginOil plans to license its technology to help transform algae into a renewable and sustainable replacement for petroleum.”

 

To learn more about OriginOil and its breakthrough single-step extraction process, please visit www.originoil.com.

To see the video mentioned above, visit OriginOil’s homepage or an informational page about low cost oil extraction.

Today, a Tea Party rally took place at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina. Senator Jim DeMint and Mark Sanford made statements. I was able to get the last half of Sen. DeMint’s speech:

Also, here is Governor Sanford’s speech:

In addition to that, here are some pictures from the rally:

The Crowd

Senator Jim DeMint

Governor Mark Sanford

This guy was plain awesome.

And my personal favorite…

If you want larger prints of the above photos, click this link.

Also, here is a slide show that include the above photos as well as some others:

This article, which haphazardly throws algae into a long list of other biofuel producing crops, highlights that algae is at least on South Carolina’s radar of crops that could be grown in the state. This is good because because, as I have highlighted before, algae is the best biofuel crop out there. Anyways, here is what the article has to say about the pilot plant:

Well, that’s just what the Clemson University Restoration Institute and the Savannah River National Laboratory are hoping to figure out with their proposed $14 million pilot plant at the Clemson Restoration Institute in North Charleston.

 

Once funding is secured, the plant would take about 12 months to build.

 

The facility would give researchers a central place to advance the viability of using South Carolina’s best crops to make biofuel. Among those items being studied: Switchgrass, sweet sorghum, and pine, and even algae would fall into the mix.

Up until this point, the only way to get oil out of algae would be to kill the algae and extract the oil. Now, however, there seems to be a process that could get the valuable oil out of algae without actually killing the algae cell itself. This process would theoretically cutting the cost of algae production.

Commercialization of this new technology is at the center of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between the Ames Laboratory and Catilin, a nano-technology-based company that specializes in biofuel production. The agreement targets development of this novel approach to reduce the cost and energy consumption of the industrial processing of non- food source biofuel feedstock. The three-year project is being funded with $885,000 from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and $216,000 from Catilin and $16,000 from Iowa State University in matching funds.

 

The so-called “nanofarming” technology uses sponge-like mesoporous nanoparticles to extract oil from the algae. The process doesn’t harm the algae like other methods being developed, which helps reduce both production costs and the production cycle. Once the algal oil is extracted, a separate and proven solid catalyst from Catilin will be used to produce ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and EN certified biodiesel.

Pretty awesome if they can actually get this up to commercial production scale. However, with any new technology, I will believe it when I see it.

A new 6m euro project in Scotland called BioMara has been launched to find the best kind of algae to derive biofuels. Compared to a lot of their American counterparts, this project will focus both on single cell algae (microalgae) along with seaweed (macroalgae). Here is what one researcher has to say about the project:

 “We do not know which strains are the most suitable to grow and convert, or the best cultivation conditions at large scales. We will therefore initially focus on creating new knowledge that should raise the efficiency of existing technologies as well as developing novel technologies. BioMara will further investigate process controls, engineering needs, supply chain issues and the social and economic impacts of algal biofuels,” says Stanley.