WEBVTT - Algae: Food, Fuel, What? 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.320 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh, and I just want to 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.000 remind you that we are releasing a brand new podcast 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.640 called Short Stuff. It's got its own feed and everything, 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.760 but it's still the same great kind of stuff you 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.960 should know that you love. It's got Me and Chuck 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.599 and Jerry, but the topics are briefer and the episodes 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.640 are shorter, and we hope you like it. It's its 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.320 own thing. It comes out every Wednesday, and you can 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.760 find it by going to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.920 you get your podcasts and searching for short Stuff. Enjoy. 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.960 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house stuff Works 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:48.600 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:52.360 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there. And Jerry said, go, 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:56.120 so this is stuff you should know which America loves 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:01.279 because it rhymes. Mmmm what rhymes? Jerry said, go, so 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:06.480 it's stuff you should not and Americans love rhymes. Isn't 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:11.600 that the new uh reality show America Loves Rhyming? That'd 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.920 be cool, would be like a hip hop kind of 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:21.560 talent show. Yeah, I think that'd be neat. America's got rhymes. Yes, 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.360 that's going pretty good. How about you, man, I'm good. 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:30.240 I'm I'm finally uh all cleared up for my weird 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.800 Australian gold. Oh that's good. You sound much better. You 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.680 look good. Yeah. Just loving life again. Uh well, not that, 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.640 but I feel physically able. It's life and stuff right now. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.000 But it is, You're like in the grips of it. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.920 Jerry's all strung out. I'm a little tired kind of 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.040 what going on. If I keep saying, if you see 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.360 me live in November, then that means all as well. 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:59.560 Yeah almost there, chuck, Just another monthsh yeah, yeah, I 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.120 would stays is. October is my favorite month generally, but 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.800 this October's is the suck. Oh yeah, you're Halloween is 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.720 your favorite holiday kind of person? Huh? I love it. 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.480 Just Halloween football's cranking up, that first fall breeze blows 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.680 in the whole thing of October. But of course it's Atlanta, 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.359 so it's still you know, in the nineties. It's a 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.480 weirdly hot, ridiculous Atlanta has got some odd weather. I'll 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:26.840 give you that. My friend I was telling Jerry the 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.720 other day that I saw a thing. I believe it 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.920 was the New York Times had this interactive feature where 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.760 you could see how many days above ninety degrees where 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.360 you lived was when you were born compared to now. 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.440 And in nineteen seventy one, Atlanta had fifty five days 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:46.200 above ninety Now it has seventy seven, and in another 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.440 like ten years, I think it'll be ninety days above 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.640 ninety degrees because the climate change. Or is that just 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.760 the New York Times editorial opinion. No, I mean this 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.480 is These are the facts. They didn't say. Why if 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:01.560 we could devay that if you want, because it sounds 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.119 fake to me. No, I mean, that's just the reality 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.120 of the temperature. They weren't saying. I think let's just 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.320 draw around conclusions. Sure, sure, I know. The point is 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.360 it's hot. It is hot, and you know what happens 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:21.079 when it's hot, Chuck, I love this segue. Algae blooms. Yep, 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.280 you know what happens when algae blooms. Fuel is born. 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:35.800 All kinds of things. Potentially you're born, cosmetics, mayonnaise, um, food, livestock, sushi, succi, 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:40.200 all that stuff. All of it is born when algae blooms. 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:50.080 Sushi sandwiches, sushi, shushi sandwich. Oh, Steve brule our heart. Yeah, 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:55.000 I had a very flirted with greatness when a publicist 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.040 for John c Riley said that he might be on 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.560 movie crush and it did not happen. So oh, I'm 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.120 sorry about that. That's right. That would have been That 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.160 would have been pretty exciting. You were broken up for 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:06.920 a little while there, weren't you, right though? Yeah? You 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:11.320 recovered just like it was an Australian cold. Nothing. All right, 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.560 So let's talk algae. This is pretty remarkable. Yes, So, um, 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.040 we should kind of set the states here because just 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.920 in the last couple of years, the bottom has kind 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.080 of dropped out on the algae. Is bio fuel um 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.719 push among venture capitalists and oil companies dropped out? Is 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.040 in not happening. It's not happening, at least not right now. 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.440 There was this There was this moment in time about 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.080 two thousand and eleven to say, I think two thousand fifteen, 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.960 where it looked like at least as as far as 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:48.080 like money and attention and media exposure that was being 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.280 thrown at algae was that it was it was the 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.120 next great bio fuel, and that it was going to 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.920 happen really soon. But the thing that I was learning 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.160 about venture capitalists is like they know like soon, they 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.800 like right now. And so as it became very clear 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.839 that a lot of the early preliminary results from the 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.560 lab we're not necessarily translating into the real world, a 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.760 lot of people walked away. But in doing that that 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.960 it's not to say that algae as a biofuel isn't 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.120 going to be a viable fuel of the future. It's 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:22.760 just going to take a lot more money and a 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.640 lot more time than everybody at first was kind of 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.080 hyped up for over the last couple of years. So 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.640 it's still there, the promise is still there. It's just 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.599 not happening tomorrow. Some people predict it might not even 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:35.839 happen this century, but I take issue with that. I 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.320 think it will happen in the twenty one century. Well, 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.160 it's funny because I did UM occasionally for stuff like this, 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.240 I will search just news uh on the old Google, 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:49.479 and today they're popped up an article about a company 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.359 in Hawaii that is in fact pushing forward UM. After 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.200 all they're testing and everything, they're pushing forward with with 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:00.400 a with the plant with a bio diesel production plant 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.000 from algae. So that's awesome. At least one place is 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.840 doing it in Hawaii. Yeah, I think I think there 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.080 are a few companies that are like, we're staying the course, 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.240 we're going to figure this out. But for what I 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.800 saw in the parlance of venture capitalists, the industry is 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:19.120 pivoted to UM food production more than um food, and 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.840 food and additive production more than um fuel. But from 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.600 the research, they're learning how to grow more algae faster 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.200 and better and harvesting it more cheaply and processing it 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.120 more cheaply. All of those lessons can be extrapolated over 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.920 to the fuel industry as well. So as long as 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.880 people are messing around with algae, there's a lot of 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:41.640 good stuff that's going to come from it. And I 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.839 can understand after researching this article where all that hype 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:49.560 came from, because it's just like beautiful stuff. Yeah, it 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.159 really is, and we should we should specify here, and 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:56.440 we're talking algae. There's something like a hundred thousand or 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:03.039 more different genetically diverse strains of algae um but typically 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.159 you can kind of divide it into two categories. There's microalgae, 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.160 which is what makes water green and it's a microscopic, 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.600 single cell plant and then there's macro algae, which is 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.000 like you think of with seaweed or kelp or sea 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.840 lettuce or something like that. Yeah. And you know, for 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:25.120 this show, we're talking about alga culture. Um. And this 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.480 is not any I mean it's new in the sense 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.200 that we are rampant gump efforts into studying like bi 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.520 fuels and stuff like that. But the Japanese have been 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:44.000 cultivating algae for a long long time, like years or more. Yeah, exactly. So, Uh, 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:46.960 it's always been a big thing there. Uh. In the 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.960 British Isles, like in in sixteen century Mexico with the Aztecs, 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.000 people have been eating algae, using algae. We're gonna talk 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:59.920 a lot about spilina, which has been consumed in harvest 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.920 it for thousands of years. Uh, and so you know 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:08.360 we've been eating it, using it for fertilizers, um, thickening 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:10.640 agents for food like you said with mayonnaise, and like 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:15.320 in things like toothpaste. It's a big, big business. I believe, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.160 about a six billion dollar worldwide business, a couple of 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:25.440 billion of which is for seaweed paper alone for nori. Yeah, 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:27.920 just for the stuff they wrap sushi. And it's two 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:33.760 billion dollars two billion dollars for those delicious green sheets 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.720 that look like paper that you eat. Yeah, So as 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:39.120 it stands, even without the idea of it being like 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.640 the next alternative energy, it's still a six billion dollar business, right, 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.079 so there's a lot of reason for people to keep 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.720 paying attention. Is there's money to be made in algae 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.480 in other words, right, Yeah, but you can you know, 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:52.160 like we said, with a bio fuel and we'll get 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.120 into this more. One of the cool things about algae 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.600 is how versatile it is. Beyond the fact that you 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:58.840 can eat it and you can well we'll talk about 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.640 all the myriad things you can do with it, but 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.240 you can squeeze oil out of that stuff that can 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:08.439 be turned into gasoline or jet fuel, which is amazing. Yeah, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:12.800 you can replace kerosene with biofuel form algy and you 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.520 can use the waste product that you get as a result. 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:20.600 It's it's really sort of a wonderful thing. And here 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:25.640 goes it sounds like a big, long setup, So it was. 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.960 It was a beautiful one man way to go um 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.400 so with with algae with either type. What we're talking 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.959 about our plants, right, and just like any other plants, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.360 they produce uh, they produce their own food through photosynthesis. 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:45.280 Green plants they use chlorophyll and sunlight, and they convert um. 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.280 They also use carbon dioxide and they convert all that 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:53.640 into energy stores and they give off as a byproduct oxygen. 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.280 So you can start to see why algae is a 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.200 bit of a darling of the environmentalists set, because is 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.640 first of all, it's drawing C O two from the 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.720 air and it's putting out oxygen as a byproduct, and 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.560 then it's a darling of the energy set. These are 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:15.559 two different sets that sometimes overlap um because you can 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.800 actually take the energy store and which is stored largely 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.000 in the form of oil, but we'll see other kinds 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.559 and unlock it, like you said, in different types of fuel. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.720 That's easier said than done. But you can also do 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.960 a lot of this stuff with lamb based plants to right, 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.720 and there actually was a big push there were Algae 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.640 represents the third generation of bio fuels. The first generation 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.760 was UM basically like cellulosic ethanol, using like corn to 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.520 turn into um fuel, which a lot of people were like, 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.439 this is really great. And then if you'll remember those 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.640 food riots in like Egypt and Haiti, and I think 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:55.320 two thousand and eight, you like, diverting corn from the 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.839 food supply over to the energy sector is really really bad. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.160 So people said, Okay, we don't want to we don't 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:02.959 want to mess with our food supply. We can't use 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.920 food for energy, but we can use waste from that stuff. 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.240 So like you can take the um corn stalks that 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.960 nobody's eating and turn them into a biofuel, which is great, 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.720 but it requires several extra expensive steps, so it's just 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.000 not cost efficient. Now algae came along and it has 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.240 a lot of things going for it compared to land 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.640 based plants that made it really really attractive for a 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.960 number of reasons. Well, yeah, for sure. Uh it's and 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.640 when we when we say something is fast growing algae, 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.240 we need a new word for how fast algae can grow. 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:42.720 Ultra fast growing. Yeah, like that turbo turbo growth. Uh. 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.040 Land plants like you were talking about, sometimes it takes 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.959 years or months maybe to reach maturity. Um algae can 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:52.200 do this. That can complete a life cycle sometimes in 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:56.360 a day. Algae can well. Some algae because I think 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:58.679 there are more than seventy thousand species. I saw a 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:04.800 hundred thousand. Really they probably found thirty this morning. Um. 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.640 Some algae, though, can double their biomass in an hour. Uh. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:13.960 Super efficient as far as converting solar energy to biomass, um, 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.640 I believe land plants use like of their energy just 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:23.320 building like the structure like roots, structures and stems and 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:27.800 things needed to like support the plant itself. You don't 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.559 need this with algae. It's just floating out there, right, So, 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.400 I mean, if you're using of that sunlight and carbon 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.760 dioxide nutrients just to build the structure, you need to 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.240 keep doing that just to be a dumb plant. That's 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.400 extraordinarily inefficient, at least compared to algae, which it just 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.040 floats in the water, doesn't need roots, it doesn't need 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.200 much structure. It's a single celled plant. So basically all 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.599 it is is a little solar powered energy producing factory, 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.720 and that's what it does and it doesn't so it's 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.520 extraordinarily efficient compared to land plants, for sure. Uh. Compared 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.000 to land plants, you can grow algae and very very 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.680 tight concentrated spaces. Uh. I have here that they produce 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.880 up to a hundred times more oil breaker a hundred 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.840 times than land plants. Yeah, that's remarkable. Yeah, that's pretty 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:20.160 substantial too. Plus, um, there's different types of algae that 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.240 produce oils are edible for food. Um. I don't think 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:29.240 they very frequently overlap. But from all these different types 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.520 of algae, you can say, well, all I have is 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.480 the salt marsh pond to grow algae in what kind 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.480 of algae can I have? God? And God goes here, 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.080 take this algae. It's pretty great. I'll give you a 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.600 pretty good buzz too if you dry it out. And uh, 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.000 the guy takes it from God, puts it in a 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.320 salt marsh pond, harvests it, saves a little bit for 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.520 his head stash, and then sells the rest to Rex Tillerson. 0:13:54.120 --> 0:14:00.320 That's right, and that's the end of the Bible. And uh, 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:02.920 the other cool thing is algae doesn't compete. It's not 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.000 like an either or with land plants. It grows in 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.520 the water, So it's not like, oh, I need all 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.120 this land that you need for corn to grow my algae. 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.080 It's a big one. Don't even need fresh water there. 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:19.320 It can grow in in gross water, dirty water, polluted water, 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.800 salt water. And not all algae, but certain kinds of algae. 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:28.440 Uh So it's not like there there they can coexist, 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.200 you know, they can all just be friendly. You can 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.600 still have your corn fields in your algae ponds. Yeah. 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.840 And again it's like it's unlike the first generation of 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.960 bio fuels. It's not competing directly with the food supply. 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.400 It's not saying, well, we need this land to grow algae, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.440 so we can't grow corn on it. It's we've got 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:48.120 all this land to grow corn, and we've got this 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.040 stupid pond that's not doing anything for anybody. Let's grow 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.560 algae in there too, baby, And then you've got a 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.000 farmer that's growing both. One of the other things about 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.360 algae too, Chuck, is that a lot of those things overlap, right. 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.200 You can you can you can actually set up a 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:08.520 kind of algae that is not only like producing oil. 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.920 You can use the leftover stuff after you've extracted the 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.320 oil to feed your cows on your on your land, 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.840 or to feed the corn that's going to feed the cows. 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.200 And then all the while you're also drawing carbon dioxide 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.680 from the atmosphere. So it's pretty it's pretty great. It's 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.280 pretty versatile, and there's a lot of reasons people like 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.600 it so on all that, I think we set it 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.280 up pretty well. You want to take a break, Yeah, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:34.880 I get you know how excited I get when we 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.880 talk about efficient systems. I know you do. You get jazz? 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:40.120 I need to like, I need to go calm down. 0:15:40.240 --> 0:16:07.360 All right? Oh all right? So we set up that 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:11.840 algae is basically the miracle of miracles here on planet Earth. Uh, 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.160 if you've got water, you've got a sun in the sky, 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.880 and some nutrients, then you can harvest I mean, you 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.440 can harvest algae. But algae, you don't, like, it'll grow 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.720 on its own, right, Oh yeah, I mean that's I mean, 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.240 it grows naturally. It's not like we created this stuff. 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.080 But you can grow it on your own. You can't. Well, 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.320 there's there's I think what you're saying, what it's like, 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.800 there's there's techniques you can do to improve the growth 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.360 of algae, right yeah, or like you can you know, 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.320 you can harvest is stuff from the ocean. But there 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.720 are many many ways to actually like have your own 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.800 little algae farm, right, especially if you're making um, if 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.680 you're if you're doing um micro algae, like the tiny 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.000 single celled stuff that you actually can't see. It's just 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.120 you know, when water turns green, Yeah, that's that's algae 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:00.880 in it. It's not like you can you can see 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:03.040 it or anything. The stuff you can see that's considered 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:09.520 macro algae. Microalgae is again single celled, microscopic individual plants 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.600 that there's so many of them they just tint the 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.280 water green. So if you want to grow those, there's 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:19.440 a few different techniques available to actually farming um algae. Again, 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.520 it's called alga culture, which is not a beautiful word, 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.320 but it's like it works. Do you I like, I 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.640 like how it looks more than I like how it sounds. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.359 Alga culture. I like it. Yeah, it's like you like, 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.439 you like choked on something in the middle of the 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:37.359 word alga culture. All right, So we have the three methods. 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.520 Like you're saying, um, you have your standard open pond, 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:45.920 your standard clothes pond, and your standard bio photo reactor. UM. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.040 An open pond is exactly what you think. That's the 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.919 cheapest way to do it. Obviously, the simplest way, the 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:56.120 sort of old fashioned way, is in a big shallow pond. Um. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.280 And it's you know, it's not just willy nilly that 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.959 will usually divide this thing up in to um almost 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.560 like I mean, they say race ways, which is really 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.120 kind of dumb. In this article, I would say it's 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.960 more like lines of like planted rows of corn. Let's say, yeah, 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.640 kind except it's algae. And the thing is is sunlight, 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:17.800 uh is great for algae, but it only you know, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:19.760 once you get a lot of algae going, it only 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.680 penetrates so far into the water. So what you need 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.640 to do is you need to agitate it and stir 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.960 that algae up to make sure everything gets a little 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.120 taste of that sweet sweet sunlight. Uh. And in case 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:32.920 of an open pond, you have a system like a 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.960 paddle wheel system, agitating and stuff, exposing everything to the 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.160 light all the while. It's almost like composting in a way. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.720 You're you're mixing and nutrients and c O two into 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.000 the liquid um. It's a great system, but it's it's 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:51.479 the one that produces the least biomass um. It loses 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.160 water to evaporation, so you continually need to add water. 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:58.880 And this is the one where contamination or predators can 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:03.920 come in and you know, p or eat or yeah, yeah, 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.440 I guess either one would be a problem. Huh. Yeah, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.240 you've got a wolf pean in your algae pond or 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.600 eating the algae. You don't want either one of those. Ye, 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.960 So that's the open pond. UM close pond is about 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.800 the same, but you've you've covered it up sort of 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.760 like a greenhouse, which means a little more costs, but 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.000 you have a lot more control you do, and the 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.280 cost would be mostly up front if you if you 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.639 build the greenhouse correctly, it's not too expensive to build 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.040 a greenhouse, although if you're doing it on a very 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.920 very large scale, you either need a lot of ponds 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:37.159 with a lot of greenhouses or one big pond with 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.840 a massive greenhouse over it. Either way, the point is 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:44.520 is you're exerting your human right to control nature over 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.120 the pond that you're growing algae, and it has your 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.040 wolf friend can't get in um, it's not going to 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.320 get contaminated by other algae. It's just a it's just 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.760 a lot easier to control, and it's not, i would guess, 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:02.160 not too terribly much more expensive than the and pond method. Yeah, 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.960 if you've got if money is no object, if you're 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.280 a person of means and you want to allow your friends, Yeah, 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:10.800 and you want to really want to show off and 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.240 annoy your neighbor. Although I think these things look really cool, 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:16.439 Actually I do too. It looks like something that the 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:21.400 Ghostbusters would have trapped some you know, it looks like ectoplasm. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.879 It's very bright green. Um. The bio photoreactor method, this 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:30.200 is completely closed. Um. Basically you're growing algae in these tubes. 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:34.000 It's all I mean, I say artificial. It's not artificial 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:38.359 because it's still water, but you're you're completely manipulating what's 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:42.320 going on with pumps and nutrients and water and light 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:46.680 in these clear tubes. Um. Sometimes it's like an automatic 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.720 system that's all completely set up. You know, it's a 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.359 lot of money, but it's a really like it's the 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.000 most efficient way to do it, even though it's the 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.760 most expensive it is. But I mean, like if you 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.480 if you're you know, growing algae for commercial purposes and 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:06.439 you've got a little sweet VC money, you might as 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.160 well set up a bio photo reactor. You're right, you've 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.640 got I mean, you've got light coming from all directions right, um, 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:20.320 and you have uh a controlled closed system. Because one 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:21.960 of the things ABOi alogay is it grows and it 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.960 grows really fast. But if you can, if you make 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:27.919 sure it has nutrients it needs, the pH is just 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.439 right like it like slightly alkaline water of a pH 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.800 between seven and nine I believe, with a temperature of 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:39.320 sixty eight degrees fahrenheight. You like, you can control all 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.680 this stuff very easily with the biophoto reactor. Again, the 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:47.399 problem is the upfront cost, yeah, for sure. But the 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.840 thing is is with these three methods you can grow algae. 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.600 That's some methods are better than others, but you know 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.200 that you can grow algae in here. The problem really 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.320 comes in in getting the algae out of the water 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.240 and then getting the oil or whatever you're trying to 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:08.919 get from the algae out of the algae. There's a 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.640 lot of um, there's a lot of steps you need 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.080 to take in and some of like the more steps 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:18.600 you add, the more involved each step becomes, the more 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:23.040 expensive the processes. And when the process gets expensive, those 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.439 VC guys start to walk away. So you have to 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:28.440 figure out these this process and that's kind of where 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.360 it's at right now. In part. That's kind of where um, 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:36.040 the at least algae biofuel industry is stalled out right now. Yeah. 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:39.919 So those three methods that's for cultivating the micro algae 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:42.639 um the macro algae that we talked about, which is 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.479 kelp and sea lettuce and the stuff that like when 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.680 you're in the ocean, like, oh, get that stuff away 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.240 from me, Like I don't want the miracle plant on 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:56.800 my leg um. That stuff has been cultivated for centuries, 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.640 thousands and thousands of years in the open sea um, 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:06.040 the ocean, the sunlight, everything that it needs is in there, 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:09.879 and it grows like crazy. It's great. Harvesting this stuff 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:12.399 is a little tough. Uh. They've been doing it, like 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:15.639 I said, for thousands of years and in coastal areas 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:19.520 all over the place, all over the world. But they, 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:21.680 you know, begin to think like hey, we we maybe 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:24.800 want to cultivate this stuff. Uh so what do we do? 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:28.280 Maybe you know, it'll attach to a rope, like the 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:31.000 spore attaches to a rope and it grows on that. 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:34.160 So let's just throw these rope lines down on anchors 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:40.000 and it's basically a vertical growth rope. Uh, the same 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:42.840 like with a large net. It grows on that rope 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:47.359 and they basically can just like anchor the stuff down 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:51.359 have it grow along these rope lines and then pull 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.200