Here’s an interesting tidbit from Biodiesel Magazine:
The U.S. DOE’s Ames Laboratory, operated by Iowa State University, is researching nanoscale particles to harvest triglycerides, neutral lipids and fatty acids from microalgae for biodiesel production. A recently completed research project used silica nanoscale particles to penetrate plant cells and inject chemicals into the cells. The new research project will use these particles to extract oil from the algae cells without killing the cells. Ames Laboratory received $885,000 from the DOE to carry out this research. “It’s basically nanofarming,” said Kerry Gibson, a media relations staff member of the lab.
Considering how rapidly algae can reproduce and grow, is this entirely necessary? Once algae has grown for about 30 days, then regular, non-nano harvesting can occur daily. I’m still searching for concrete information on the length of time it takes for an alga to replenish its pocket of lipids. If it happens in a couple of hours, then nanoharvesting would make sense, and it could reap a much more bountiful harvest than regular harvesting methods.
In essence, the McCormicks and Whitneys at the Department of Energy are building tiny little combines and tiny little gins and tiny little disk harrows to harvest fat out of tiny little plants. If you look *real* close, you can see “Erin” in cursive painted on the combine door.
Now imagine, if you will…
If the nanoharvesters escape into the wild, what happens? What if they get into the ecosystem, or if they get into the human body? At first glance, it looks like an amazing fat-burning weight loss plan, but what if they don’t stop at the extra Thanksgiving pounds, and continue harvesting every bit of fats and triglycerides–like the lipid layer in the myelin sheath around neurons? OOoops… “Hey honey! The doctor says my cholesterol is down to zero! I wish my brain still worked, though…”
I’m sure that the nanomechanics will state in a huffy tone that they will engineer the nanoharvesters to only go after specific algae cells. However, knowing how prone humans are to shortcuts, especially when profit is involved, I think it’s entirely reasonable to expect them to shortcut on nanoharvester safeguards. “Gee, we can save money and increase profits if we keep the harvesting targets generalized. Don’t worry, though; they’ll never escape.
“Trust us, we’re government scientists.”
Tags: algae, Alternative Energy, biofuels, nanotechnology, Science
