Green Star States: U.S. Industry Gets Serious About Cutting CO2 Emissions
December 20 2007 - 10:30AM
Business Wire
Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC:GSPI) announced today that its
Algae-to-Biodiesel program has attracted companies that need less
expensive CO2 sequestration. Algae growth needs only sunlight,
non-potable water (salt, briny or wastewater) and CO2, which is the
major global warming gas. One tank full of gasoline in your car
emits over 200 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere. Algae eat CO2;
convert it to oil, proteins, carbohydrates and other useful
products; and, emit only oxygen to our atmosphere. Several major
companies have contacted GSPI in hope of converting their stack
emissions into usable products. The present industry plan
(theoretically) is to install miles of large pipes to deliver the
stack emissions to a place where it will be pumped under high
pressure into the earth. This plan needs a suitable deposition
cavity in the earth to properly confine the CO2 in its liquid form.
Either deep oil wells or other deep saline water deposits will
suffice. Billions of dollars will be spent building pipelines for
stack emissions transportation and compression stations to compress
the gas to liquid form and pump it deep into the earth. All of this
takes a lot of energy to operate and also contributes to global
warming in the process. This is like pouring money down an endless
hole. Industry is beginning to wake up to the fact that there may
be another solution that can actually turn a profit from this CO2
�waste product�: Algae-to-biodiesel. Algae farms are glutton eaters
of CO2 gas and produce 100 times more oil per acre than traditional
oil crops (such as soy oil), which can be converted to biodiesel.
Algae can also produce high-grade animal feed (35-40% protein). Mr.
Joseph LaStella, president of GSPI, stated, "I am absolutely
surprised at the amount of emails and phone calls I get from senior
corporate executives, who simply say �it�s too good to be true�."
(i.e. true that algae can really do all that) Mr. LaStella has
decided to put this "it�s to good too be true" statement to bed
once and for all. A 17-year algae study (1978-1995) was funded by
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered by the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to investigate algae as
a source of fuel and its ability to consume CO2. Twelve
universities participated in the research program, which studied
3,000 strains of algae. Mr. LaStella has studied this program since
1995 and has taken the time to accumulate the many conclusions
distributed throughout the voluminous report. These conclusions,
when read together, will impress the most negative skeptics. The
program�s conclusions are as follow: 1) Consumption of coal, an
abundant domestic fuel source for electricity generation, will
continue to grow over the coming decades both in the U.S. and
abroad. 2) Algae technology can extend the useful energy we get
from coal combustion and reduce carbon emissions by recycling waste
CO2 from power plants into clean-burning biodiesel. When compared
to the extreme measures proposed for disposing of power plant
carbon emissions, algal recycling of carbon simply makes sense. In
a world of ever more limited natural resources, algae technology
offers the opportunity to utilize land and water resources that are
today unsuited for any other use. Land use needs for microalgae
complement, rather than compete, with other biomass-based fuel
technologies. 3) Human beings are carrying out a large-scale
geophysical experiment of a kind that could not have happened in
the past nor be produced in the future. Within a few centuries, we
are returning to the atmosphere and the oceans the concentrated
organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of
millions of years. 4) The burning of fossil fuels is the major
source of the current build up of atmospheric CO2. Thus,
identifying alternatives to fossil fuels must be a key strategy in
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While no one single fuel can
substitute for fossil fuels in all of the energy sectors, we
believe that biodiesel made from algal oils is a fuel which can
make a major contribution to the reduction of CO2 generated by
power plants and commercial diesel engines. 5) High oil-producing
algae can be used to produce biodiesel, a chemically modified
natural oil that is emerging as an exciting new option for diesel
engines. At the same time, algae technology provides a means for
recycling waste carbon from fossil fuel combustion. Algal biodiesel
is one of the only avenues available for high-volume re-use of CO2
generated in power plants. It is a technology that marries the
potential need for carbon disposal in the electric utility industry
with the need for clean-burning alternatives to petroleum in the
transportation sector. 6) The program envisioned vast arrays of
algae ponds covering acres of land analogous to traditional
farming. Such large farms would be located adjacent to power
plants. The bubbling of flue gas from a power plant into these
ponds provides a system for recycling of waste CO2 from the burning
of fossil fuels. 7) Put quite simply, microalgae are remarkable and
efficient biological factories capable of taking a waste
(zero-energy) form of carbon (CO2) and converting it into a
high-density liquid form of energy (natural oil). This ability has
been the foundation of the research program funded by the Office of
Fuels Development. 8) Land, water and CO2 resources can support
substantial biodiesel production and CO2 savings. 9) It is possible
to sequester as much as 1,000,000,000 (one billion) tons of CO2 per
year from algae farms in lands not useful for any other purpose in
the Southwestern portion of the U.S. alone. In summary, does anyone
believe that the country that conquered the moon cannot raise
algae? The power and cement industries along with the Governors of
several States were the first to address CO2 reductions and
sequestration. They should be congratulated. More recently two
major milestones have been reached: The U.S. Congress has passed a
huge energy bill and President Bush signed it into law on December
19th, 2007. This is a real Christmas present to our Country. The
bill essentially will increase the efficiency of many items, better
mileage cars, efficient light bulbs and billions of dollars to
produce ethanol from non-food sources (cellulose ethanol).
Secondly, at the international Kyoto Treaty (or Global Warming)
summit held in Bali, Indonesia. Mrs. Paula Dobriansky, under
secretary of state for democracy and global affairs leading the
U.S. delegation, was under great pressure from Kyoto members to
commit the U.S. to support future reductions in global warming
gases. Mrs. Dobriansky said, "We will go forward and join
consensus," in relation to a deal to launch two years of talks on a
new global treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto delegates
hailed the U.S. reversal. Mrs. Dobriansky should be congratulated
because she had the fortitude to make this decision on her own
judgment. Mr. LaStella has long written editorials supporting
cellulosic ethanol and algae biodiesel as the only long-term answer
to the U.S. fuel problems and global warming issues (see press
release dated Nov. 9, 2007 titled "GSPI States: Some Biofuels Add
Significant Food to Your Table" and also see press releases dated
May 15 and June 28, 2006). Mr. LaStella believes that GSPI is on
the cutting edge of both these technologies through its R&D
programs over the past 10 years and has waited a long time for
these events to happen. Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC:GSPI)
(OTC:GSPI.PK) is an environmentally friendly company dedicated to
creating innovative cost-effective products to improve the quality
of life and clean up the environment. Green Star Products and its
Consortium are involved in the production of renewable
clean-burning biodiesel and other products, including lubricants,
additives and devices that reduce emissions and improve fuel
economy in vehicles, machinery and power plants. For more
information, see Green Star Products� Web site at
http://www.GreenStarUSA.com, or call Investor Relations at
619-864-4010, or fax 619-789-4743, or email info@GreenStarUSA.com.
Information about trading prices and volume can be obtained at
several Internet sites, including http://www.pinksheets.com,
http://www.bloomberg.com and http://www.bigcharts.com under the
ticker symbol "GSPI". Forward-looking statements in the release are
made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned
that such forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties, including without limitation, continued acceptance
of the company�s products, increased levels of competition for the
company, new products and technological changes, the company�s
dependence on third-party suppliers, and other risks detailed from
time to time in the company�s periodic filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
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