Going All Green Algae

This is some good news people.

First, a light-hearted joke based on my findings.

What does a professional racecar driver and a professional surfer have in common?

Besides the obvious being these are both solo sports with perks like sponsorship pay and groupies, both also bravely seek the thrill of the ride for a swell time (not punny?), neither mind hot environmental conditions, both get paid to play for a living, and both can pee their pants (or wet-suit) whenever they want to. 

Image By Dénes Emőke (Isle of Wight, England) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

It’s absurd to think the answer to the world's clean energy crisis and secret sauce for “going green” can be found in green algae- sometimes we humans make matters far more complicated than they need to be-take fracking for example.  It has been known by top ranking government offices and somewhat in the general public that bio-fuels have been successfully produced and are nearing more realistic conversion and manufacturing possibilities.  Federal initiatives to reduce the United States carbon emissions have been beneficial overall, and that does not mean this is evidenced by counting the number of Prius(s) on the road. 

What is not widely known, however, is that our most productive or promising lead thus far as a source for biofuels has been green algae oil which reportedly can be converted into petroleum in just 30 minutes. It is really incredible to think that this whole time we are digging for fossil fuels and concentrating on making our synthetic environment more hospitable and that algae, one of the first substances on our planet, is likely the answer to our eco-friendly dreams and desires for an invisible carbon footprint. 

There is actually a ton of scientific information in the public domain you'll find by searching Google as to uses and current advancements but there’s one (brand) new development that is a reason to be stoked, if you are an ocean dweller, surfer, or even just mildly interested in the biggest development to occur in the surfing industry since the general public starting knowing Kelly Slater’s name.

Image by unknown, Public Domain 'Pairing up for the surf'.

There is arguably no outdoor athletic solo sport that is not also thankful for nature. The environment is an integral part of (and requirement) for outdoor sports and provides whatever conditions needed for one enjoy or challenge themselves. Outdoor sports enthusiasts such as mountain and rock climbers, hang gliders, skiing, etc. cannot enjoy their sport without nature or the environment, surfing is especially that way. There are only so many miles of coastline,hence beachgoers, surfers, and those that lives by the ocean are aware of an additional civic and moral responsibility as ‘sea keepers’ or 'ocean custodians', meaning picking up trash, watching for anything odd, knowing how to spot a rip current from land, etc. Considering the intimate relationship that surfers have with their element, the surfing community has responded enthusiastically at the latest news, the first ever successful development of a green algae foam core surfboard. The completely eco-friendly green algae board was just developed by the largest surf blank manufacturer and distributor in North America, Arctic Foam (Foam Corps) headquartered in Oceanside, California in conjunction with scientists at UCSD (headed by Steven Mayfield Professor of Molecular Biology at UCSD) , professional surfers (such as Rob Machado) and combined effort with a group of organizations, including the US Department of Energy and Solazyme. 

While the source is at its core green, the blanks are the industry standard “pure” white, although the demo being presented to the San Diego County Mayor will have traces of it’s natural color to reinforce the advertising aspect of its content being a completely green and sustainable replacement for a popular petroleum based product. This presentation Additionally, there are far more customization and culturing techniques available with algae than the current petroleum-based counterpart, not to mention the bio-synergistic aspect for surfers, professional and amateur. The most exciting part is undoubtedly the limitless uniqueness of each board which would come down to core, or DNA of how the board was designed, not only for the person enjoying the stick but for the conditions they prefer (i.e. big wave, tow-in, short board, hot or even cold water), it’s beyond radical and high-tide time!

Yes, that is a squirrel hanging ten-

Image By John Patrick Mizell (Jpmizell at en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Surfboards start out as a ‘blank’, which is essentially the foam core raw chemical man-made material made of Polyurethane or Polystyrene, even the process of making, glassing and shaping these blanks is toxic, bad for the environment, people and all mammals marine or terrestrial.

Polyurethane (PU) surfboard blanks are the most common used material today in both professional and amateur enthusiasts since it is relatively easy to shape compared to the earlier Polystyrene predecessor and has been described as a “more responsive” material for the end product, the drawbacks being the yellowing color of the white blank with extended sun exposure and the extensive environmental impact of production and are considered “virtually impossible to recycle”-but are the cheapest and best option to date.   

Considering the consistently high demand for quantity and the 'old-school' production of surfboards,(they break and ding no matter what) at least there is an optimistic change in the tide for the future whereby the surfing industry will be able to become more ecologically friendly and non-toxic to their environment.    

Another sport that has recently made a huge successful effort at going green is the most unlikely of industries-auto racing. NASCAR to date has the “largest renewable energy projects” underway in the world which include three main areas; renewable energy, recycling and clean air. This sounds crazy, right? Actually it is true, NASCAR’s recycling program may not seem like much initially, but it is the largest recycling program in all professional organized sports recycling on average 25 million bottles and cans at events on average-a perfect thirsty crowd for an aggressive recycling program. For every green flag that drops, NASCAR plants 10 trees, but a “minimum of 50 trees planted for each NASCAR-sanctioned race held at a participating track”.  In the last two years the tree planting program has rooted over 300,000 trees in the US. Then there is the Bio-Fuel program, the Tire Recycling, the Solar powered facilities, electric charging stations, the clean air program, it is impressive for such a big corporation to put their money where their priorities should be (federal backing doesn’t hurt either).

NASCAR Las Vegas

Image By Pixabay (http://pixabay.com/fr/) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

By switching our usage from fossil fuels and petroleum to more renewable energy sources we will be able to reduce our CO2 emissions by 80%, with an algae sourced system approximately 80% of the plants CO2 emissions would be recaptured (during daylight hours), make a recycling process of a recycling process in a way. To date there has been much difficulty in developing and establishing production capacities in order to meet a potential wide-spread demand for algae oil biofuels, yet it is believed by the scientific community that microalgae is the likeliest “complete approach complete replacement of fossil fuels.”

Here is some additional scientific and very specific information directly from Wikipedia upon searching for 'Algae Oil' which breaks down weights and cost conversion projects to the penny(ish)-

“Assuming that the biomass contains 30% oil by weight, the cost of biomass for providing a liter of oil would be approximately $1.40 and $1.81 for photobioreactors and raceways, respectively. Oil recovered from the lower cost biomass produced in photobioreactors is estimated to cost $2.80/L, assuming the recovery process contributes 50% to the cost of the final recovered oil. If existing algae projects can achieve biodiesel production price targets of less than $1 per gallon, the United States may realize its goal of replacing up to 20% of transport fuels by 2020 by using environmentally and economically sustainable fuels from algae production.”

It seems discouraging at times how slow change takes to actually show results, but evolution doesn’t happen over-night, little girls don’t wake up women one day-although sometimes it seems that way. Finally Science and Ecology are reading the same book and talking about it, playing nicely, if you will, which will in turn have tangible positive results. If only divided government parties could take note of how two seemingly opposing sides can work together toward a solution for a greater good; the right hand talking to the left hand, surfers and rocket scientists, NASCAR and tree-huggers, and pretty soon we will hopefully be able to say man and nature in harmony.

Image By Tangopaso (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Recommended: Please read also a wonderful little article from Surfer Mag written by Justin Housman, published 8/25/15.