I don’t want to get into a p!ss!ng contest here, but it appears that this site went up yesterday after my post. Certainly the Sapphire Fact Sheet.pdf did not exist prior to May 24. Most everything else on the site goes back only to May 30.

That’s beside the point. This company appears to be designed to make a big splash in the popular media and to disappear without a trace. The picture of the beaker with green-tinted “crude oil” is even sillier than the green “gasoline.”

I wish that the Sapphire Energy’s process were real. Based on the information available so far, I believe that it is a hoax.

To Richard, just because this new fuel isn’t the same color as gasoline means nothing (and most gas is not clear and colorless). Soybean oil and diesel don’t look the same but they both function in a diesel engine. A ruby is red, and a sapphire is blue, yet they have the same chemical formula. The minute trace elements cause the difference in color. The color might be from chlorophyll, or it could be from something entirely different. In any case cholorphyll is a hydrocarbon with one magnesium atom bound to it, something I am sure that the engineers and chemists can handle.

Acura, doesn’t look like they are public yet. The private equity guys have first crack at it. Those are the guys who will invest first, and clean up if the technology is for real and the stock goes public.

The big problem is going to be mass producing this stuff in a cost effective manner. Massive scale production always has problems initially. My guess is it will be several years before a process is developed to make this competative with oil. Even at todays prices.

I read a article about this process a few years ago and the problem was producing a large amount of fuel. Small amounts were ok. Hopefully they will figure it out.

You raise a great point. Infrastructure is the Key. Like Bush said we’re “Addicted to Oil”, due to the fact we have dealer on almost every other corner. Easy Access.

It has electrolytes!

It’s what cars NEED!

(courtesy of ‘Idiocracy’)

Consider this: Gasoline is a transparent colorless liquid. If you produce a product that is virtually identical to gasoline, then it will be a clear colorless liquid. It will not be green.

Presumably, we are supposed to believe that the green comes from the chlorophyll. However, chlorophyll is a huge molecule that may have unexpected side affects in our finely calibrated modern gasoline engines. It would be something that you would filter out of a legitimate product.

It is doubly troubling that Sapphire Energy has no website that I can find–at least none that Google can hit. Most of the references to this company or to its claims are available on non-scientific/non-engineering websites and newspapers.

Algae has been seen as a component solution to the climate problem, as Algae grows fast, Kelp is a form of Algae and that grows fast enough to actually watch it grow. Algae absorbs Carbon dioxide pulling from the air. It can then be turned into fuel, or even food, go figure, and solve several problems at once.

The Carbon pulled from the air is used to make more Algae which is used to make for fuel, but the amount of Carbon released is slightly less than what went in. Less new carbon means eventually the atmosphere can achieve balance as we are not adding by using Fossil fuels. More efficient vehicles burn less fuel and so even lesser carbon emissions.

Algae can also be used as fertilizer to grow crops or processed directly into food products. Algae may become the new Tofu (Yuck maybe).

There are several companies out there looking at this process and more than a couple look to be major players such that the oil companies will not be able to touch them. After all it would be hard for Exxon and Shell to say they went out of business when everyone and there grandmothers went out of their way to buy the new, less expensive stuff. If anything they will have to get into the Algae energy business or risk going under.

This will make a better immediate impact than Ethanol has which still has production issues, like using food to make fuel. It is also something that could be around for a very long time, decades or centuries.

Anything that helps even a little, I’m all for. Algae? That may end up helping a LOT.