Quest; 316; Algae Power

The following he heard auction was produced in high definition. Tonight on QUEST. What's been around for three billion years and is able to convert carbon dioxide pollution into oil. Believe it or not it's algae. QUEST meet the pioneers who are trying to make the next great biofuel by harnessing algae is amazing powers. And California condors were brought back from the edge of extinction in the 1980s. Now scientists are helping them over yet another hurdle. Major funding for Quest is provided by the National Finance foundation the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investing in partnerships for environmental conservation science and the San Francisco Bay area. The Richard M. wrote a Goldman Foundation celebrating more than 50 years of innovative grant making

and the Amgen foundation additional support provided by the SD backed Bill Jr. Foundation the William Cable's Jr. Foundation and S. BOWERS The Robert Noyce trust the dirk and Charlene cabs the Nell Foundation and the VA dess Family Foundation. Support is also provided by. Why. So. What do. This. This and this have in common. Brace yourself. They're all algae. I mean. The earth is home to more than 30000 species of algae. A family of bizarre organisms that are neither plants nor animals. They're found from the tropics to the poles. Some are

bigger than you. Others are too tiny to see with the naked eye. And thanks to a few of the tiniest ones someday you just might be using algae to fuel your car. Algae are really cool because all of them can do photosynthesis like plants converting the energy of the sun into bio mass and chemical energy. So they're pretty much everywhere you look. And I could even hold the petri dish out the window here and catch algae right out of the air. So sometimes you'll see me just driving along and earthly holding a petri dish out the window like this and catching algae for they can take back to the lab and grow. So this is an example of what happens if I drive along holding a petri dish out the window. And see there are a lot of colonies on this plate and I see a couple of green colonies here. So those are some algae that we caught. Basically half a dozen colonies if you could. Hero. And a good day for algae is a good day for humans. If algae hadn't started breathing in carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen three and a half billion years ago none of us would be here if algae had never

come along and produced oxygen for the Earth's atmosphere. Humans would never exist. Like most plants algae have mastered a process called photosynthesis. Basically algae act like little factories they use the energy in sunlight to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. Then they break down water to manufacture bad CO2 into sugars and fats and spew oxygen into the air is a waste product. But for the algae those sugars and fats are what it's all about. They use most of these raw materials to assemble more algae and lots more. But in certain situations algae are a bit like us. They can over eat sun energy and they end up storing the extra energy as oily fat kind of an algae spare tire some algae can produce more than 50 percent of their biomass as oil in the lab in applications for bio energy now we'd like to try and exploit that natural capacity.

That's essentially the dream that's pushing algae into the biofuels headlines. Compared to corn ethanol which requires the breaking down and fermenting of complex sugars algae fat a type of live it can be squeezed out and refined directly into fuel like bio diesel. And unlike fossil fuels burning algae based fuels wouldn't release any new greenhouse gases. Ideally the overall process will be carbon neutral. The algae take up carbon dioxide then that carbon dioxide gets released with no net increase in the CO2 carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It sounds great as a concept but it's still not quite ready for prime time. For one thing algae don't want to give up their precious oil. And they've developed a pretty tough skin to protect it. Getting the oil out isn't easy. And before you can do that you need to start with a serious volume of algae and that requires land. How much land this will give you an idea. Along the southern edges of San Francisco Bay is a network of strangely

colored shallow inland made ponds. They're actually massive industrial salt evaporation ponds. But the crazy colors come to you courtesy of various families of wild algae that grown near the surface which you see out here is about 50 acres of ponds maybe and this will be a typical size for algae massive open ponds have long been considered the cheapest way to grow algae for biofuels. But oil used to be so cheap it just wasn't worth the effort. Well that era is over. And algae oil companies like Bob Walsh's the roar of biofuels in Alameda are up to their knees in an open algae ponds again. Our vision is going to have several thousand acres that will produce a hundred three million gallons a year using salt water and land that bare land you can grow. On paper algae biofuels seem like the answer to everyone's questions. Finally a carbon neutral fuel that we can simply swap in for

fossil fuels. But algae aren't the first biofuel source to be sold as the answer to everything. Remember corn ethanol. Let's just say it didn't quite work out as planned. We visited San Francisco's Mission District with Stanford University researcher Holly gifts to get a taste of corn ethanol Darkseid. The idea of producing biofuels from regularly growing plants and crops seems like a great idea. What we didn't plan for were some of these unintended consequences. We saw the prices for corn wheat soybeans and oil pong triple from 2000 to 2007. In fact the 2007 U.S. ethanol mandate contributed to a nearly immediate spike in the price of corn worldwide. That translated to a 400 percent increase in the price of corn tortillas sparking protests in Mexico and elsewhere. And the dangerous chain reaction continued from there. To make up for U.S.

farmland that it changed over to biofuel crops. Countries all over the world took up the slack by dedicating new lands to food crops and they cut down and burned rainforest to do it. But consider this burning cleared forests already contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than the total exhaust from every vehicle in the world. And Holly Gibbs research makes it clear. More and more forests are being burned to make room for crops. These pictures that are taken from space taken from above looking down at the land surface. It lets us track individual land parcels as they move into or out of different land cover categories and what we found was startling. During the 1904 example we saw that more than half of new crop land came from intact closed rainforest. When we fuel our cars up with bio fuels we're effectively burning rain forests in our gas tanks.

But algae ponds are different right. You don't have to clear forests for them. And algae can grow in brackish or salt water where you can't grow crops. And then again algae takes up a lot of space usually far from the city. And the city is where you find factories and power plants. The most concentrated source of algae is favorite food. CO2. Here's how it would work. Just plop down an industrial warehouse next to a factory and. Then pipe the CO2 belch out of the factory smokestack straight into the hungry algae in the warehouse and inside the warehouse you might find something like this. It's a working prototype of a device called a photo bio reactor which is being developed by Origen oil a Los Angeles company. A lot of people would think these are lovely Christmas trees or our disco lights. It's really the obvious taste is not wine. It's a proven fact that he has better

reception of light in the blue in the red wavelengths. These disco lights actually get the algae to do photosynthesis and grow. Origen oils idea is to scale up the individual containers to 10000 gallons each. A set up like this could generate 1000 gallons of algae oil per acre per day. The helix bio reactor is pretty flashy packaging some algae scientists call it a techno toy that's just too expensive to provide a large scale solution. And think about this. If algae biofuels are about harnessing the sun Where's the solar source. The devil's bargain in indoor production of algae is that you are now going to go away from direct sunlight. You've got lights pumps chillers and all these things add up to an energy penalty for Echols bury the added energy cost of supplying indoor light and climate control are worth paying. When you compare it to the total energy produced by

his algae well. So how soon are we going to run high powered vehicles like jets on algae biofuel. The answer now in January of 2009 jet fuel refined partly from algae oil was used to power a two hour experimental flight. For the growing number of algae biofuel startups around the globe. It was a shining proof of concept but considering that algae biofuels currently cost a whopping $8 per gallon it's a pretty tough vision to sell right now. Still when weighed against the other biofuels options it's hard not to get excited about Algy's future. LG has a great deal of potential and part of the reason is that it overcome some of the limitations we saw with the crowd based or a land based biofuels. We need to be cautious as we move forward. We need to think about some of the unintended consequences the

ripple effects or chain reactions that we might not be thinking of on the surface. You know 10 years from now what is this going to look away from pond scum to power source. Sounds too good to be true. And it may be it's still unclear if there's enough land to use open ponds effectively or if bio reactors are just too expensive to scale up to factory size. Still at the risk of being overly optimistic isn't there something about the possibility that last week's Face cream may just turn out to be next week's future fuel. Part of quest every day on our community blog comment on stories see exclusive behind the scenes producer's notes. Breaking news from the Bay Area science writers. Tune in to KQED Public Radio on Monday morning says Quest explores its new urban

environmental challenges as well as emerging trends in science. That's KQED Public Radio Monday mornings at 6:30. Any 30s. Car doors carry the power of the wear and they also carry the honor of the poem. The power of the Condor was legendary to the native people of California. The sacred bird clean the land and carried spirits on its wings. For Marty Wyatt a ceremonial leader and Dolphin dancer of the shoe Marsh tribe

the battle to save the California condor is a sacred duty. I'm an eco lawyer and I'll put my life on the line for that. He's organisation called the store you Foundation has joined the fight to bring the legendary Thunderbird back from the brink of extinction. Think of the Condor and how. It's been here is one of the surest people. You know we think of. How most of the modern shimmers people need to really identify ourselves. So to see the condors soar again. Gives us hope. For many Bay Area tribes the condor is a symbol of creation and healing. Now it's up to mankind to heal the Condor. You know we cried ourselves as well as being sort of a temporary steward or

caretaker for the birds. Biologist Kelly Sorenson and the field team from the Ventana Wildlife Society are out to perform a check up on a captured Condor. They're searching for signs of lead poisoning. Today we have nearly 10 year old male California contour that was trapped a few days ago. So that we could take a blood sample and determine if there's any lead in the blood of that bird. If there is no lead then it will be immediately released. And if there is then it would undergo treatment. With a nine and a half foot wing span this scavenger is the largest land bird in North America for millennia. Thousands of Condor are soared over a range that stretched from Canada to Mexico. But during the gold rush they were hunted for their long hollow quill feathers which became prized containers for gold dust.

The biggest problems the Condor faced over a hundred years ago when settlers first arrived to the west were shooting and poisoning. Throughout that whole entire time we've we've now come to realize that lead poisoning has also played a significant role in the Cline of the species. By the 1980s only 22 contour survived in just nine of those remained in the wild. It was then that federal biologists made the critical decision to capture the last free condors. It became quite clear that the only option was to bring all the raining birds into captivity and start over. And since that time captive breeding programs have successfully produced almost 300 individuals right now there are about 60 condors in California for a swine. But since 1992 15 free flying condo owners have died from lead poisoning. At that rate if left on their own this species will not

survive. We have a field crew that works incredibly hard all year round to constantly monitor birds and the other big component of what they do is to try to trap every individual at least once a year just so that we can determine if they're suffering from lead poisoning. So where is this lead coming from. This is an x ray of a deer shot by a lead bullet. The tiny black specks are lead fragments left behind by the slug. Culture and Connors are obligate scavenger So they're they're not out there killing anything they're only eating the remains of dead animals. When an animal is shot with a lead bullet oftentimes those fragments will be left behind in those carcasses. And we've found evidence of fragments from rifle slugs in the digestive system of condors to treat a condor with lead poisoning requires an aggressive medical process called relation. So when lead enters the bloodstream

it blocks neurological receptors that control the digestive system. So literally what happens is the bird starts to death because it doesn't know that it's hungry. What key lation does is it grabs a hold of that lead. And then allows the animal to excrete it out naturally. I'm introducing legislation working in conjunction with Fish and Game and with wildlife groups as well as hunters in California to. Eliminate lead ammunition that we know is poisoning the condors. California Assemblyman Pedro Nava has attempted several times to pass this legislation only to be disappointed. We now know through scientific testing that the isotopes that are found in lead ammunition are the same isotopes found in the condors blood. We don't need to call CSI. We don't need to do any more. It's done we have the answer. So now let's move from that and work on a solution on Toure's just by

a simple switch of the ammunition can help be a part of the solution and that's why I called on them to help me do. While switching bullets may appear to be a straightforward solution hunting lobby groups such as the California outdoor heritage alliance stand opposed to establishing regulations banning lead ammunition we understand the threats facing the California condor It's a magnificent bird and we want to do everything we can to help out. We just would like to see an incentive based approach tried first rather than the regulatory approach. A big issue with hunters is that non toxic ammunition cost two to three times more than lead bullets. And there is still debate on the ballistic capabilities of non toxic alternatives. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently sponsored an event to give hunters a chance to try an all copper ammunition.

And one group called Project a gut pile is also hoping to change Hunter's perceptions one of the reasons that they asked me if I want to be part of it was because I hunt but we want hunters to take a really good look at their perspective as far as what they're actually doing out there. If we can convince 100 that'll have turned a 200. For Anthony making the switch to lead bullets was not automatic. At first I was a little bit you know pessimistic I go how can anything out what I've been shooting but taking it out when that's where the real test is is when you go out and you physically harvest game. I mean the animals were dead before they hit the ground and I was so. Bad. I want to do my part as far as when I take something from the wild I want to leave as little impact as possible. Recently Anthony the Wish Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council sued California Fish and Game seeking a van on lead

bullets in the Condor country body last grizzly bear who lost a Jaguar. We lost the wolf. We almost lost the ALCA pronghorn and this is just here in California. It's time for people to wake up you know to not be so selfish. I don't think there's a hunter in California that wants to be responsible for. Eliminating the condom. I think when given choices they'll make the right choices. Today there are two hundred eighty nine remaining California condors but only one hundred thirty eight are free flying in California and Arizona for Condor number 1 6 7. It's the moment of truth. To point solo means good news and we can let this guy free. We don't want to be doing what we're doing. We want to put ourselves out of a job. We want the car nurse to to be the way they were once before and then flying on their own. One. Two.

Three. Our environment needs more support. And. The condor is an icon. Of. That. We honor. The spirits of those that have left this world. Including the Congo. These mountains and hills are still shaped the same way as they were 10000 years ago. And just like their ancestors they'll find their way. And we recognize and reflect. On the past. So that we can look through the eyes of the ancestors and the future. Next time on Quest depression is one of the leading causes of disability in the

United States. But until recently little has been known about how it affects the brain. QUEST explores treatment research to more effectively combat it. And they're graceful they're beautiful. But do you know how they work. Come along as we uncover the scientific secrets behind the elegance of sailboat. Major funding for Quest is provided by the National Finance foundation

the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investing in partnerships for environmental conservation science and the San Francisco Bay area. The Richard M. wrote a Goldman Foundation celebrating more than 50 years of innovative grant making and the Amgen foundation additional support provided by the SD backed Bill Jr. Foundation the William Cable's Jr. Foundation and ours the Robert Noyce trust the dirk and Charlene cabs the Now Foundation and the Dead's Family Foundation. Support is also provided by KQED television production.