Power Plant Growing Algae for Biodiesel & Ethanol
A power plant near Farmington, New Mexico is working to make itself a greener operation. The Four Corners Power Plant is growing a crop of algae to be turned into ethanol and biodiesel.
This story in the Farmington (NM) Daily Times says it is a circular process:
Arizona Public Service Company, which owns the 2,040 megawatt coal-fired power plant, has had success with a similar project at the Redhawk Natural Gas Power Plant. During one year, the algae grown there absorbed between 258 to 450 tons of carbon dioxide per acre, said spokesman Steven Gotfried. The harvest was good and the lipids, or oils, were turned into biodiesel while the starches became ethanol.
“We were the first to ever take emissions from a power plant, feed carbon dioxide to the algae, take that algae and convert it into both ethanol and biodiesel,” Gotfried said.
Gotfried said GreenFuel Technologies contacted the power company because it wanted to test the experiment in a real-world setting.
Arizona Public Service Company partnered with GreenFuel Technologies on the project.
1 Comment »
Thomas Sullivan
If one has produced algae in close proximity to a power plant, it seems to me that the most carbon neutral use of it would be to dry it (perhaps, recycling its water) and burn it directly in said facility. Then, grow more off those gases.
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