Renewable Revolution

Just Have a Think 382K subscribers

Algae has been used by humans for thousands of years, but the idea of using algae as a secret weapon to combat climate change is definitely a modern day concept. The more scientists delve into the biology of algae, the more species they find and the more they discover just how incredibly versatile this primordial organism really is.

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Anthony Gelbert 25 minutes ago
Algae has two problems that make it unsuitable, both as a bio-fuel and as a CO2 reduction type of autotroph.

1. All algea species are extremely hydrophilic, so sun drying prior to further processing must be enhanced with electrical energy powered heat, which lowers the Energy Return on Energy Invested to a point where it is economically unattractive to use algea to make bio-fuels unless governments throughout the world, instead of giving subsidies to the hydrocarbon fuels "industry", governments give them to a massive worldwide algea bio-fuels and CO2 reduction project. I don't see the 🦖 fossil fuelers letting go of the subsidy swag from all the governments 😈 they have corrupted any time soon.

2. All algea species are extremely temperature sensitive. While it is true that their growth rate far exceeds that of any other type of plant life, the increase in global range needed to make algae reduce CO2 in our atmosphere is not feasable.

I have researched this thoroughly. There is no plant life that can beat algea at rapid photosynthesis, which is the sine qua non requirement for reaching the 350 PPM goal, but algae is so hydrophylic (water loving) that too much energy is required to dry it for storage. 👎 No, passive solar energy will not work to dry algae. That has been tried unsuccessfully. Also, algea can grow rapidly only in a very narrow range of the biosphere.👎 Algea is not the answer.

🤔👨‍🔬

But, there is a floating plant, the tiniest angiosperm (flowering plant) known to science, that can do the job of rapid photosynthesis that we need on a planetary scale. 🌍🌎🌏🌞

► It is extremely hardy.

► It grows in nearly all areas of the planet, with a longer growing season that any other plant life form except phytoplankton.

 ► It doubles it's mass every 48 hours or so, depending on the availability of Sunlight, Carbon Dioxide and cheap fertilizer like pig feces.

► It is tiny, but not microscopic. It can easily be harvested without heavy machinery.

► Unlike microscopic algae, Drying these tiny plants with passive sunlight is also easily done.

► It is easily stored.

► It can even be used as animal feed AND supplemental nutrition for humans too.

► It has been used to clean ponds and lakes of toxic heavy metals. When used for this pupose, it becomes poisonous and must be treated as hazardous waste.

The common name is Duckweed, of which there are a number of species of floating plants. My favorite is Lemna minor ✨🌞

The science based case for a planet scale Lemna minor project has actually been made by evidence of a floating plant when the Arctic had shallow freshwater seas (millions of years ago). Scientists now believe a rapid cooling that took place at that time, even though the CO2 level was even higher then than it is today, was directly caused by the proliferation of Azolla floating plants in that sea. They rapidly lowered the CO2 levels, sinking when they died and being replaced by others, until ice formed over them. They cooled ALL of Earth's atmosphere ⛄ from a CO2 PPM concentration that was higher than the one we are saddled with now.

"This freshwater surface layer allowed Azolla to repeatedly spread across the ocean surface forming mats of vegetation during a succession of episodes called the ‘the Arctic Azolla Event‘. The event lasted for almost a million years from about 50 to 49 million years ago."

It happened before. We can make it happen again, and we don't need a million years to do it. We CAN DO IT in a few decades. 💫

Learn more:
👉 Duckweed, the plant that may save mankind by enabling our species to live symbiotically, instead of parasitically, with the biosphere

william armstrong 11 days ago
It is great to hear about a Carbon Capture system that for once does not create more CO2 than they can recover from the atmosphere, or result in more oil extration.

Anthony Gelbert > william armstrong 27 minutes ago
Agreed.
I've thought about the Carbon Dioxide issue for several years. I have always questioned the motives behind the hydrocarbon industry cheerleading CO2 capture and sequestration.

IMHO, after looking at this from several reality based angles (unlike the unreality based happy talk pushing MO of the 🦕😈🦖 fossil fuelers), the fact that the best present day technology to keep the CO2 concentration down (which is used in Nuclear Submarines, which are forced to surface every six months because they cannot keep CO2 below 8,000 PPM after that time period) cannot get CO2 levels anywhere near 5,000 PPM, never mind the 350 PPM we desperately need to get back to in order to avoid the worse effects of the Sixth Mass Extinction now in progress from excessive GHG emissions, evidences that the proposed CO2 reduction technology, euphemistically called "capture and sequestration" technology, is a fraud. 👎

IOW, all the technofixes out there refuse to admit that the GOAL here is NOT to keep the Hydrocarbon Industry profitable. The GOAL is 350 PPM, period. Anything else is simply wishful thinking.

The only reality based way to solve this problem lies with Biological solutions involving rapid photosynthesis. I think Duckweed is better choice than algea.
🧐 Duckweed, the plant that may save mankind by enabling our species to live symbiotically, instead of parasitically, with the biosphere