No wonder the Arabs are in such a hurry to destroy Israel! First a major breakthrough in solar energy, and now a revolutionary discovery in producing synthetic fuels...using algae!:
Israeli scientist Dr. Isaac Berzin discovered that "green slime" contains one of the keys to the alternative fuel the world is seeking. His company is the first ever to develop and produce biofuels from algae that are bred on gases emitted by power plants.
It might sound like some sort of magic trick to put algae, CO2 and sunlight into a box and come out with fuel, but Berzin did it. "I feel a bit like Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb," he says. "He tried thousands of materials until he arrived at the filament. My intuition, too, told me that it was possible to do something that people were only dreaming of - to build a device from algae to produce energy at market-compatible costs.
"It's logical, really, when you think about it," Berzin continues, "because all liquid fuels are compressed ancient organic matter, the outcome of photosynthesis. The liquid fuels that are pumped out of the earth are ancient plants. There are no miracles here. We just accelerated the process. A quarter of the weight of algae is vegetable oil from which biofuel can be produced, and the point was to control the biology. My goal was to adapt the algae to the local water and the local profile of the gases - to ensure they would be happy."...
In a large conference hall at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Berzin declares that the world is on the threshold of a vast change. "An era has ended," he asserts without hesitation. "Until now we found a reserve of fuel and used it up. In comparison to the evolutionary process, we are at the transition from the stage of the collectors of food to the situation in which humanity began to engage in agriculture and grow food. That is what we are doing today: we are starting to grow our fuel. Our generation will go down in history as the 'fuel generation.' That generation is over. Man is moving from a situation in which he uses up the sources of energy to one in which he grows energy." ...
This is by no means just theoretical:
Berzin has registered 12 patents that enshrine his rights to the technology connecting an energy farm to a power plant. In 2005, in the heart of the Arizona desert, he chalked up another achievement when he set up the world's first trial project adjacent to a power plant of APS, Arizona's largest electrical utility company. The director of the advanced fuels program of APS, Raymond Hobbs, relates that his Ford has been cruising the streets of Phoenix on green fuel since 2006. "My mandate is to burn fuel and produce electricity, but we have a problem called CO2," he notes. "The good thing about Itzik's [Isaac's] technology is that we are recycling the toxin and creating a new industry. It's a win-win situation for everyone [xcept oil ticks, 2x4]. It's not every day that you make a hole in the smokestack of a power plant that is worth billions of dollars and start to grow algae. I did it because I believed in Itzik. The first time we met, he showed up at my office with three people and said that was his whole company. I say that the size of a company does not determine the size of the head. One person's idea can bring about tremendous change. I am certain that his technology will bring mankind lots of fuel, food and peace." Once oil ticks starve, peace may be possible.
Even more interesting, the process doesn't interfere with the food supply or take up valuable land and is actually more efficient than synthesizing fuel out of plants used for food crops:
"It turns out that the biofuels produced from corn or soy seeds - fuels that are considered the future substitute for pollutant fuel - cause environmental damage themselves. It is also not economically viable: to grow the soy beans you need leaves and roots, a whole system that supports the beans from which the oil is produced. No such system is required to grow algae. Their rate of growth is 10 to 100 times that of any other biological system. So if you have a unit of land, you can achieve orders of production that are many times higher. This is a process that does not compete for land and water resources - algae can grow in saltwater and in sewage."
Dr. Berzin, who made TIME magazine's list of 100 most influential people this year, is also aware of the implications this could have for the War On Jihad:
" After all, those terrorists are funded by fuel powers...As soon as one energy farm proves itself economically - and that will happen within a year and a half - we will be able to establish similar farms all over the world. If an energy revolution of this kind occurs in China, it will foment a strategic change in the division of the political forces on a global scale. A world in which China will not be dependent on Iran will be a different world. Some countries will lose part of their power. The message is one of energy freedom. If you have land, sun and CO2, you can grow your own energy. A revolution like this will make the world free."
And just maybe, that's how G-d intended it. Or as Dr. Berzin puts it, when modestly downplaying his achievement "... it was mostly the finger of G-d. I am not a religious person, but I have a feeling of divine providence. G-d is not mentioned in the Book of Esther, but from the events you understand that He is behind the scenes, that He exists. In my story, too, what I dreamt of came to be, and I often had the feeling that someone behind the scenes was helping me."
Just another major benefit to humanity provided by Israel...as opposed to what their Arab adversaries have contributed to the world. |