For the Biofuel movement to flourish it will require cheap, flat, modular space networked into national and state highway systems. Abandoned big box stores provide these conditions. With little investment, these flat pavement deserts could be converted to bio-fuel generators.
Currently, algae represents the strongest case as a feedstock: it is inexpensive, it grows on waste nutrients, and it produces on the order of 5000-15,000 gallons of oil per acre per year. That’s 10x its next yield competitor (palm oil)! Algae-oil, now emblazoned oilgae, is perfectly suited for production in modular bio-refineries inhabiting abandoned big box stores. Further, the ample parking lot space could better perform as a solar collector array and wind turbine field, ready to recharge new electric vehicles being manufactured and sold by U.S. and foreign auto makers.
Instead of pumping out carbon-intensive goods and consumers, “Big Box Biofuel” absorbs carbon as the algae grow and output clean fuel. Within one abandoned Lowe’s, Home Depot or Wal-Mart – oilgae production could easily exceed 100,000 gallons per year. With solar and wind power adding around 200 kW of clean electric power per day – numerous electric vehicles could be charged for millions of carbon free miles every year. Get rid of the faux facades and abandoned landscapes, and let’s plug into these infrastructural behemoths with scalable, renewable energy.
This is the most plausible solution I’ve seen so far. Absolutely genius in its simplicity. I can’t believe there are so many Lowes stores in San Antonio.
The biggest complaint by industry experts in the conversion of our auto industry to some other fuel is the cost of implementing or upgrading fueling stations.
I would love to see the cost details of this idea, so I can wave it in the face of the next person that says it will be impossible to implement a new fuel system in the auto industry.
Clearly, the algae self multiplies, it does all the work, so there is little investment there. It may profit if it absorbs regional waste products such as sewage. By using abandoned stores as production facilities, you eliminate the delivery drivers and middlemen. However, it can be a franchised operation, to send profits to the locals. The store is already set up for end retail and parking. I would like to see biodeisel as well as veggie oil pushed in mass production autos. These cars for sale can fill the abandoned big box store parking lots. What if the dealer offered full scheduled services as well as heavily discounted fuel? I think it would be a winning combination. Especially if everyone’s car smelled like french fries on the highway.
Incorporate digesters for sewage and other waste whereby methane is produced directly and you’re REALLY onto a winner!!
Smaller, more efficient engines (motors in the US!) would also help!
Interesting, I think this could work…over time. Dealing with our addiction to cars is tough, and is one of the major problems with suburbia. I see this as a Transportation solution, not a Reburbia solution…but a good solution none the less.
Agree with James Oeinck, this is good idea, or at least the start of one, for alternative energy sources/transportation, but not something that has direct impact on suburbs in the reburbia sense.
I’m also curious as to what is the substrate the algae grows on, and how much energy is requried to get it sufficient nutrients, etc, as well as what raw materials are required.
ah, bio-fuels that don’t compete with the existing food supply. i’ve been reading about the use of algae in this role maybe just maybe it’ll work. existing oil companies like shell are investing in researching the possibilities.
if it was to be generated locally, the big box store space would certainly be an option, so maybe this idea isn’t as outlandish as it might seem.
i’m a bit curious as to the “retail” section though. seems a little tacked on. not trying to dismiss it, just trying to understand what it is there for. just as a kind of acknowledgement that the retail space would have to be rebuilt *somewhere*? also think that a bit more attention to aesthetics could be paid.
Biofuel may be a great alternative energy solution, but converting big box stores to powerplants doesn’t address the main issues with big boxes: they are too low density, waste space, and are a huge eyesore. Mixing in these places with retail won’t remove any need for the giant parking lots, won’t eliminate the trashy architecture, won’t be any better than in the long run. I don’t know about alage in great detail, but why not put these places below ground under new construction sites? And we certainly don’t need huge signs that say “ALGAEX” all over american cities.
There is too much air turbulence near large buildings to make wind power generation feasible as pictured.
Unless Craig Venter’s no doubt patented, genetically engineered, oil-secreting algae are used, the oil has to be extracted from the cells. This takes energy.
The retail space would house a low-fat Algaburger grill.
Wouldn’t these produce a bad smell? Especially in the Texas heat?
As I recall, these kind of biofuel facilities need to both grow the algae, and “process” the algae. His designs only show the growing portion. a critical step is missing here. The issue of Processing, would make the place a scent, and noise nightmare, and cause a net energy loss through the entire project.
and yes, wind turbines, located such as this, would be more decorative than functional.
Algae can be grown in open or closed systems. They don’t generally smell bad when growing. As long as the waste is handled, afaik there shouldn’t be an odor problem.
Great idea, but wholly unrealistic. Algae production would need to be an order of magnitude higher to be possible as a distribution alternative.
Example:
Wal Mart (the world’s largest retailer), currently has approximately 589,299,000 square feet of retail space in the United States. This includes Supercenters, SAM’S Clubs and their Neighborhood Markets. This is 13,528 acres. Using the above optimistic figure of 15,000 gallons per acre per year, converting ALL of the Evil Empires retail space would yield 202,920,000 gallons of oil. Let’s just call it 203 million for rouding purposes. Assuming (an unlikely assumption) it’s a one to one conversion oilage to usable fuel, that still leaves all of this retail space creating LESS THAN HALF OF ONE DAYS USE OF GASOLINE (378 million gallons per day, per the DOE/EIA http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html). Hardly a long-term solution.
Well Mr. Smarty Pants Jhunt, we could just stack the algae and grow it that way. How many times? Ten? Twenty? It’s producing 556,000 gallons per day. That is several orders of magnitude less than needed to replace demand.
Stack the algae one hundred times. Take over all the retail space. It doesn’t yet add up.
That said, I hope this takes hold. This technology is promising, if not yet economically viable. And it’s a damn sight better than growing fuel out of stuff we eat. I suppose my overarching point is, there is no one solution that will solve rising transportation costs, climate change, sprawl or resource scarcity. No more panaceas. No magic bullets. Collective action and collective solutions will be necessary.
To the young among us: We shall live in interesting times.
‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’
-Ghandi
Good idea, but I would hope that the bio fuel era is short lived and replaced by direct electric vehicles soon. Bio fuel is still for an internal COMBUSTION machine that burns oxygen. I would like processes to produce oxygen.
There are other crops that could be grown that could contribute such as corn, wheat, fruit trees, etc.
The concept is interesting to me. (I’m a civil engineer, so maybe the whole alternative energy thing naturally grabs my attention.) Things like odor, though, make me wonder about how land developers (who often own those malls) and towns would feel about an industrial-esque use in a commerical area. Not that zoning is permanent (it can be changed), but I wonder how that use would affect converted big box stores that once served as anchor stores to smaller establishments…
Do you think it would be more efficient to replicate algae refineries so many times? I think if algae is that productive it would be grown in high sun areas and refined at a few central locations, then shipped to “gas” stations.
I know that misses the “locavore” ethos, but is this about imagery and intent or about reality?