150mpg Algae-Powered Toyota Prius
First algae fuel-powered vehicle in the world was officially launched in San Francisco. The car, called Algaeus is a modified Toyota Prius, which derives power from green crude, from Sapphire Energy. The car runs on an astonishing 150 miles per gallon of green fuel. But they are aspiring to cross the US on approximately 25 gallons of fuel.
According to FUEL producer Rebecca Harrell, “Powering our cars with algae-based fuel could be the next Apollo mission.” Rebecca Harrell is the co-founder of the Veggie Van Organization and producer of the upcoming film FUEL. In the coming 10 days she’ll be accompanying the Fuel director and Veggie Van Organization cofounder Josh Tickell. Together they will take the Algaeus on a countrywide road trip. The duo’s other travel companions will be other green energy vehicles (including the Veggie Van and the biodiesel-powered big green energy bus), “It hit us that we needed to drive the car across the country,” Harrell said. “People think of algae fuel as this long-term, far off thing. But seeing is believing.”
This countrywide tour will serve a dual purpose. People will be aware of the new clean and green fuel and they will give publicity to their forthcoming film FUEL. This film depicts America’s dependency on foreign oil. They claim that their film is different from other environmentally-themed movies. Till now these movies raise a question mark and present us with bleak future. Those movies were usually silent about the answers to environmental hazards. FUEL tries to fill the gap here. They talk about the various methods to make the transition from oil to alternative sources of energy. What’s important for everyday people is information. People don’t say ‘Can you give me something else to be scared about?’ They say, ‘How can I get my car to run on algae fuel?’ Tickell explained. FUEL will be released in New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Washington DC on September 18th.
But you can not fill your tank with algae fuel at your local gas station in the foreseeable future. But the company aims to increase production of algae-based jet fuel this year and plans production of over 2 million liters of algae based diesel fuel per year over the next two years. The car is powered by a mixture of 5% algae fuel and the manufacturers claim that the demonstration car will leave its mark as the environmentally friendly-fuel-driven automobile.
Though, it is early to conclude that we can use algae as transport fuel. We all know that five percent blend of algae doesn’t precisely indicate the initiation of an algae revolution. But as the saying goes, glass if half full too. It states that advancement is being made on the fuel with great potential. This road trip will allow people to witness the progress in action. The main point of the Algaeus is to show the capability of algae to be used in an ordinary engine.
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September 14th, 2009
This is a great leap forward for an alternate fuel. As stated in the article, algae fuel may not be the one stop solution for all transport fuel needs, but it is a viable alternative fuel using the same IC engines that we have now.
September 24th, 2009
I’m doing a research paper, and have always been curious about how much water used and wasted with new technology. I.e., bamboo fabric is great, but not for the environment and use of water, same with algae fuel, solar power, and I’d like to be enlightened all the other new stuff that requires not only lots of water to make the end product, but subsequent environmental issues. Coffee (field to market) was an issue years ago - still is in some places.
Water is such a valuable commodity. Are we cutting off our nose to spite our face, if we’re wasting it to fix other problems.
I would REALLY appreciate some input and maybe resources here. Thank you, Cherie
September 25th, 2009
I have a 2007 Prius, can it be converted to use algae? And tell me more about the battery I would need. Also, I live in Alabama, where is anything about green energy around here? I would love to do something to improve the energy situation. I’m 62 and need to do more before the end of my time.
Thank you,
Ann
September 26th, 2009
Any of you folks interested in Algie production should check out what Biocentric energy holding, stock BEHL.pk is doing! Especially you Cherie, water usage by Biocentric will be of great interest to you!!
September 28th, 2009
Hi Cherie Byrd,
There are many ways in which to produce biofuel algae, ponds are one way which takes up a substantial amount of land and use lots of water. It is also not very effective. However, you can also grow algae in bioreactors, these are closed systems where the water does not vaporise but is constantly circulated around. There are some issues with the water heating up due to the missing cooling effect of the vaporisation, but I am sure that we will work these problems out by using some combo systems.
Algae fuels are very much the fuel of tomorrow and they can be fed with the CO2 that fossil fuel plants emit, making a conventional coal plant almost CO2 neutral (in theory because the biofuels will eventually emit the captured CO2)
September 28th, 2009
Biocentric has come out with a closed loop algae growing system. Water use is very conservative.
October 12th, 2009
I really like this idea. How do you convert to that fuel?