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"What is our energy future?"
Sapphire is leading the new industrial category of Green Crude production, profoundly altering the petrochemical landscape for the better.
Sapphire Energy believes the time is now to create new energy solutions that are environmental, scalable, and renewable. Sapphire is leading the new industrial category of Green Crude production with the potential to profoundly change America’s energy and petrochemical landscape for the better. With only sunlight and CO2, Sapphire Energy is turning algae into Green Crude that can be refined into the three most important liquid fuels we use today: gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. There is no need to make changes to our vehicles, pipelines, or distribution systems—as Green Crude offers a complete drop-in replacement solution.
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On February 15th, 2011 at 2:19 pm Russell Hart Said:
As algae is the worlds largest producer of oxygen, do we really want to mess with the amount of algae that is in our planet?
On February 16th, 2011 at 6:24 pm John Said:
What is the energy and material investment per gallon of fuel with this process? How much area is required to produce significant amounts of fuel to really change our oil use?
On February 17th, 2011 at 12:02 am Sapphire Energy Said:
Hi John, thanks for your interest. To answer your question let me make a comparison: to displace 15% of the US transportation fuel need you would need 7mm acres of land for algae, or 70mm acres for tree farming, 90mm acres for corn ethanol, 90mm acres for switchgrass, 150mm acres for corn stover, or 500mm acres for forest waste. And the land required for algae can be non-arable or fallow land, the water should be non-potable. Energy consumed in production is a similar story, but it is not so easy to make comparisons.
On February 17th, 2011 at 1:38 am Simon Chatenever Said:
Dopest Dope Evah!
On February 17th, 2011 at 1:43 am The Real Simon Chatenever Said:
IMPOSTER!
On February 17th, 2011 at 10:52 pm Andrew Said:
Don’t drink that stuff.
Unless you want to turn into the Green Goblin.
Peter Parker has his eye on you.
On February 21st, 2011 at 1:24 pm Kayla Gilliam Said:
I can’t wait until I get to fuel up my truck with this it’s exactly what the US needs good for the earth, gets any outsourced jobs back here, no more arguments over oil, and we just have to switch it out how much more can we ask for?
On February 21st, 2011 at 1:41 pm mark Said:
I would like to vote for Sapphire.
On February 22nd, 2011 at 3:46 pm bb1637 Said:
Cool company with some great people backing product development…….where there is a will!
On February 24th, 2011 at 7:14 pm Sunny Kairos Said:
There is a a coal facility in Eastern Oregon that is about to spend a tidy sum of money on pollution controls. that money could pay for your technology to be deployed here and fuel used in our transportation system. I have made numerous calls and sent emails and have not had a response. I could also organize the financing needed to put this deal together.
On April 7th, 2011 at 4:53 pm Colline Said:
What kinds of exhaust is produced when an engine burns this fuel?
On April 7th, 2011 at 5:21 pm Sapphire Energy Said:
Hi Colline, thanks for your question — it is a good one. Algal fuels are chemically identical to diesel, gasoline and jet fuel produced from fossil-based crude oil and they burn in unmodified engines, so the output is the same (marginally cleaner, in truth.) You have to look at the big picture to see the full advantage of algae. When it is growing, algae consumes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, releasing oxygen like other plants, so the CO2 produced by the engine is “recycled.” Oil from wells, or oil shale, or coal release new hydrocarbons into the air when they are burned. In addition, since algae oil or “Green Crude” can be produced domestically, less energy is used in the production, transportation and distribution.
On April 12th, 2011 at 10:37 pm Vito Said:
Have you considered using technology from waste water treatment?
We use various bugs to consume the nutrients in the waste before we pump the effluent to the next treatment stage, The stage with bugs has various methods of treatment, one of them is Rotating Biological Contactors (sort of like hard drive plates, but large) where the bugs grow on the plates. If you consider RBCs algae could grow on them to high densities and then you scrape the alge off rather then having to extract them from water.
Furthermore, Waste Water Treatment has several methods for extracting water out of the bugs and their waste (sludge) aswell as decades of experiance you could tap.
Finally, have you considered using waste water sludge as a possible nutrient for your algae? After all, algae blooms are often the result of wastewater treatment plants not able to extract all the nutrients out of the waste water before its ejected into the local water body.
On May 13th, 2011 at 2:56 pm Raymond Carter Said:
For years, I’ve been reading about the potential of algae as a transportation fuel. When will green crude, no matter how small the volume initially, actually be delivered to oil refineries and refined into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel?
On March 6th, 2012 at 10:05 am george Said:
how do you extract the oil from algae?