Earlier this week Joule Unlimited secured $70 million in funding.  The company happens to have algae facilities that turn carbon dioxide and sunlight into biodiesel and ethanol.  Meanwhile Bio Architecture Lab was able to get seaweed to create chemicals and biofuels.  Both processes use patented organisms to create the biofuel.

Parisian firm Influx Studio is proposing a radical retrofit of the Marina City towers in Chicago.  The renovation of the buildings would result in a variety of green innovations and architectural features that would result in renewable energy, vertical agriculture and cleaner air.

Algae may prove to be a simple way to clean up strontium 90, a dangerous waste component of nuclear energy.  Effective means of disposing of nuclear waste have been a long standing problem for the nuclear energy industry.  Using simple pond algae may take care of at least one element of the problem and it will allow for the separation of high level waste and low level waste.

Researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of California at Santa Barbara have found that the methane levels in the Gulf of Mexico are just about back to normal.  They thought that it would take years for methane levels in the Gulf to return to normal but thanks to helpful bacteria, it has already happened.

Experiments that used iron to cause large blooms of plankton or algae in the Pacific Ocean seemed like a good idea at the time.  Algae absorbs large quantities of carbon dioxide so creating more algae seemed like a no brainer for fighting global warming.  Turned out to be a very bad idea.  Large carbon dioxide blooms of algae were created but the algae released a toxin called domoic acid.

SkyMine® technology reduces CO2, NO2, SO, mercury, and heavy metal emissions cutting down on greenhouse gases while producing a saleable byproduct, sodium bicarbonate or baking soda.  The technology uses a carbon mineralization process that captures smokestack emissions in a way that smokestack scrubbers can’t.

All biblical allusions aside, Michigan State University (MSU) researchers have a uncovered a gene in the burning bush shrub that could mean a lower calorie vegetable oil as well as fuel for your car.  The gene found in the burning bush when added to the mustard weed will generate a high quality oil in large quantities.

News reports since the April 21at explosion of the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico have detailed the growing disaster looming for the coast of Louisiana.  A variety of different methods have been used to try and contain, minimize, and control the oil slick that is moving ever closer to the Louisiana coast.  But it’s not just the oil slick that poses a danger.

Algae is not just a fossil fuel replacement in the form of biodiesel but has been made into extraordinary rechargeable batteries.  The algae is used in an all-polymer paper-based battery.

According to Gizmag and the American Chemical Society publication, NANOLetters, the researchers have come up with a promising new battery technology.