Green Algae Strategy Products - Freshwater

Water

The sage’s transformation of the World arises from solving the problem of water. Lao Tze

A solution to the challenge of water, a critical issue throughout the ages, remains possibly the most vital global issue today. War and water, in English, have only two different letters – and may suggest a connection. Failing sufficient water, crops die and a food cascade, which operates like a bank run, threatens to consume people and their communities.

Solutions to the problem of water offer only two alternatives: 1.	 Find, harvest and transport more water 2.	 Develop a biofuel source that requires minimal water

Alternative one replicates the unsustainable actions of the last 50 years – using wider pipes, larger pumps and deeper holes to mine more non-renewable water faster to grow crops. Even if pumping energy were free, this approach crashes with each aquifer and undermines the land for both crops and people. Alternative two leaves the aquifers in place to support food crops and grows biofuels that use minimal water and nominal cropland yet demonstrate high energy productivity.

Green Algae Strategy applies alternative two and grows biofuels in water unsuitable for crops, saving the good water available for crops. In some cases, algae may be grown in salt or wastewater and algae grows recoverable oils and cleans the water which can then be used for land-based crops.

Lack of land presents a predicament because food production requires not just land but good cropland. Even good cropland produces only dust with insufficient water. At the time when the number of hungry people has reached record highs and is increasing, acute water scarcity has struck countries in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa and large parts of China and India. The combination of lack of cropland, severe drought and crashing aquifers make world food supplies precarious.

Worldwide, 70% of all the water diverted from rivers or pumped from underground is used for irrigation. Industry uses 20% and residential users consume 10%. With the demand for water growing steadily in all three sectors, competition is intensifying. In this contest for water, farmers almost always lose to cities and industry. The human body is about 60% water and each of us need about a half a gallon daily for drinking and at least 500 gallons to produce the food for a vegetarian diet. In affluent societies where grain consumptions takes the form of dairy and meat products, the California Farm Bureau estimates daily water consumption exceeds 4500 gallons. Water represents the vital limit to growth in food production. The world currently grows nearly twice as much food as a generation ago but abstracts three times more water from rivers and especially aquifers to support production. Powerful modern pumps are drawing water from deeper and deeper wells – at an unsustainable cost of both power and water. Unsustainable use of water foretells severe hunger or starvation for future generations. The American economy depends on irrigation which accounts for 81% of water use throughout the U.S. Unfortunately, 50-80% of irrigation water leaks or evaporates before reaching crops. The USDA reports that irrigated cropland accounts for about 50% of total crop sales. Consequently, groundwater for irrigation and drinking represents a critical – but limited – strategic resource.

Consumptive water use. A critical issue for sustainable water management focuses on how water is used. Extracted or surface water that cannot be recovered and reused locally is called consumptive use. Irrigation is consumptive because the water evaporates or transpires from crops into the atmosphere creating water vapor, Figure 2.1. '''Figure 2.1. Consumptive Water Use – Agriculture'''

Rising air currents carry the water vapor upward, high into the atmosphere, where the air cools and loses its capacity to support the moisture. The water vapor condenses to form cloud droplets, which may eventually combine with other droplets and produce precipitation.

Water vapor arising from irrigation may fall as rain 2,000 miles away but it’s lost for local consumption. Much of the extracted moisture falls not on cropland but floats on the wind to fall on the ocean. From a farmer or consumer’s point of view, consumptive water is gone. That lost water does not renew the local area’s soil moisture, wetlands, lakes, wells or aquifers.

Corn inefficiently incorporates water into the plant biomass. Corn takes in water through the roots to deliver nutrients to the leaves. The plant then releases the water through small pores on the undersides of the leaves called stomates. Corn protects itself from heat with transpiration that acts similar to evaporative cooling to stabilize the plant’s temperature.

Therefore, farmers must provide far more water than corn actually incorporates into the biomass. Most of the water is lost from the field as either soil evaporation or plant transpiration. Some irrigation water seeps down below the corn’s root zone and also is not available for reuse.

A single acre of corn gives off about 4,000 gallons of water each day from soil evaporation and plant transpiration. People who live near a corn field can feel the extra humidity produced by the escaping water vapor. Water vapor is a Greenhouse gas that accelerates global warming as it absorbs and radiates the sun’s rays. The high water loss from corn also means more consumptive use water must be provided to sustain the corn field’s growth. Water used for home lawns, gardens and pools as well as city parks and golf courses is similarly lost for reuse. Household water for farms or communities that use septic tanks rather than sewers is also consumptive.

City water for household use is non-consumptive. Water used in the home goes down the drain and empties through the sewers to the local wastewater treatment plant. The plant removes impurities and dumps the clean water into a nearby stream or water source. Mississippi water, similar to many other rivers, is reused many times by cities on its way to the Gulf. Unfortunately, 80 to 90% of extracted water goes for consumptive use in agriculture. The conservation programs promoted by local water companies for household water use such as low flow toilets, faucets and showers have trivial impact on water conservation compared with agriculture because household water is reused. Household water conservation programs primarily impact the amount of water flowing to the wastewater treatment plant, not water loss. However, water conservation education, especially for yards and other non-household use, build an important sense of community and educates consumers about sustainable water management. Consumers who conscientiously conserve the community’s water are prepared to convey their sustainability concerns to politicians who currently support ecologically damaging subsidies such as water, corn and ethanol. Aquifer depletion. Over 65% of U.S. irrigation extracts water from underground aquifers which are composed of sand, gravel and other materials with gaps large enough to hold and transmit water. Aquifers display all the variability associated with surface geologic formations which include porosity, permeability and different types of rock, sand or clay at different depths. Water’s highest point in an aquifer represents the water table which may be close to the surface or deep underground. Aquifers close to the surface, called alluvial aquifers may be partially recharged by annual rains. However, many alluvial aquifers refill with only 10 – 30% of annual rains as the rest runs off before filtering down to the aquifer. Large corn producing states, California, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, and Idaho account for 53% of total U.S. irrigated acreage. Much of their irrigation water depends on fossil aquifers. Fossil water was trapped thousands of years ago in ancient sediments below a layer of bedrock, shale or caliche that blocks recharge, Figure 2.2. The large Ogallala aquifer supports the groundwater needs of eight High Plains states and runs from South Dakota to Texas. This fossil aquifer was filled with water from a glacier 25,000 years ago. Even if the Ogallala were not blocked from recharge by a layer of shale, the High Plains gets less than a third of the five trillion gallons of water extracted in normal rainfall years. Mining fossil water simulates oil extraction – when the pool goes dry, no more groundwater is available. Mining water for irrigation or use by cities or industry causes the fossil aquifer level to drop. Then progressively larger pipes and stronger pumps are necessary to extract water from deeper and deeper wells. '''Figure 2.2. Alluvial and Fossil Aquifers'''

When much of the fossil water that has been in the ground for millennia is extracted, the aquifer crashes. Considerable variation occurs in aquifer death due to local geology. Some aquifers crash with 30% of the water still remaining because the water cannot be extracted due to turbidity, cave-ins, pebbles or mud. In other cases, wells must be sunk so deep, the cost of pumping the water exceeds the value of potential crops. Many farmers on the southern end of the Ogallala aquifer, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, have already had their wells go dry and their precious crop land return to prairie or desert. Failing available water, farm families have to move and leave their near valueless land to nature’s whim. The Oglala Lakota tribe in the Badlands of South Dakota lent their name to the Ogallala aquifer but they can no longer use its water because it has become contaminated. Farming and sewage have ruined their groundwater and now they must haul water from the Missouri River 200 miles away. Cities will be forced to decide if they can afford to pipe in water or if they must disburse their residents. Those tough choices are being forced on communities today in several parts of the world such as China, India and the Mid-East. Cities in the U.S. such as Aurora Colorado, Atlanta Georgia, Orme Tennessee and Palm Springs California and have begun to face similar tough choices. Similar to America, globally water tables are falling each year as fossil aquifers are being drained in key food-producing regions – the North China Plain, India’s Punjab, Pakistan and northern Mexico. Many of these aquifers are heavily over drafted and are on a path to crash within the current generation. When irrigation lowers the water table, lakes drain and springs go dry, which may extinguish rivers at their source. Rivers simply run dry, as did the Snake River in Idaho, the Yaqui River in northern Mexico, the Rio Grande in Texas and the San Pedro River in Arizona in 2007. Many of the people whose livelihoods depended on their river are forced to move because there may be no water for sustenance. Other great rivers such as the southern end of the Colorado and Sacramento carry so much dissolved salt from agricultural run-off that their water is not usable for crops. New genetically modified for crop seeds such as corn, soybeans and wheat are more productive but consume more water. An acre foot 326,000 gallons, covers an acre one foot high. The USGA Water Use Report reported that several arid Western states such as Montana, Idaho and Arizona applied an average of over five acre-feet while the High Plains averaged about two acre-feet of irrigation water. The High Plains get about a third of their water in rain – in good years. A single acre of irrigated corn consumes three acre-feet, about 1 M gallons of water. The water consumption of irrigated corn was confirmed by interviews and correspondence with both corn farmers and water companies and utilities. This research revealed that farmers often receive over three acre-feet to produce irrigated corn which aligns with the USGA Water Use Report. An acre of irrigated corn produces about 140 bushels of corn which yields 350 gallons of ethanol. Therefore, 1 gallon of ethanol consumes 3,000 gallons of water Each gallon of ethanol using irrigated corn wastes 12 tons of consumptive use water. It seems inconceivable that the EPA, DOE, USGS and USDA would push the U.S. Congress to support an energy policy that that sacrifices trillions of gallons of U.S. groundwater for a fuel additive.

Most people are shocked that irrigated corn consumes 12 tons of water to produce a single gallon of ethanol. Another way to validate ethanol’s water cost uses the USDA ethanol yield per ton of corn, 89 gallons, and the approximation that producing one ton of grain requires 1,000 tons water. This computation also ignores the water cost of the rotation crop; the farm family and refinery water, and yields 11.2 tons of water per gallon of ethanol. Additional water is required for refining ethanol, about 6 gallons per gallon of ethanol. The National Corn Growers Association uses U.S. Geological Survey reports that only 10% of corn land receives irrigation. The NCGA is the same organization that argues that burning 100 M tons of food to produce ethanol has no impact on food prices. The USDA uses a figure of 16% irrigated cropland. A visual inspection of the locations of ethanol refineries in Figure 2.3 suggests the industry and government reports for irrigated corn land may be 100% low. Their reporting error has serious consequences. It means Americans and politicians are unaware of the velocity that ethanol is consuming non-renewable groundwater. The USDA relies on the veracity of farmer surveys to determine irrigated land. The USDA also relies on farm surveys to determine farm size. Large farms should not receive farm subsidies by law but large farms receive millions of dollars in subsidies because the USDA has no means to challenge abusers. The 100th Meridian runs through the middle of North Dakota south and represents the dividing line for irrigation. Croplands west of the Meridian as well as some to the east, need irrigation, especially in dry years. States on the High Plains and West have recently built over 30 ethanol refineries that depend primarily on irrigated corn for feedstock. A typical 50 M gallon a year ethanol refinery consumes 150 B gallons of irrigation water for its feedstock. Nearly all the Western states that depend on irrigation for growing crops have ethanol refineries and California has seven.

'''Figure 2.3. Ethanol Refineries'''

About half of irrigation water is drawn from aquifers, many of which are nonrenewable fossil water including the Ogallala. Irrigation water for corn, similar to most food crops, cannot be too salty or polluted with industrial wastes. Wasting trillions of gallons of water on ethanol will drain America’s bread basket dry. Water solutions Unfortunately neither algae nor any other technology can manufacture water. Desalinization provides at best a stopgap measure for cities desperate for drinking water. However, desalinization is an order of magnitude, about 10 times too expensive in terms of both costs and energy for irrigation. Algae displace irrigation water by growing food that otherwise would consume water. Algae also replace polluted water with fresh water through bioremediation.

Displacement – growing foods that would otherwise require clean irrigation water: •	Water savings – algae can be grown and closed loop CAPS where minimal evaporation occurs and the water use for growth can be recycled

•	Brine, waste or salt water – algae grows well in water that would kill land crops such as brine, waste or salt water

Replacement – algae can clean water that is too polluted for food crops:

•	Clean human wastewater – algae assimilates nutrients from water treatment plants and returns the water to a near-drinkable state

•	Clean industrial wastewater – designer bioremediation can absorb heavy metals, toxic compounds and poisons from industrial wastes (These elements and compounds can be recovered from the algae biomass and may be sold or reused.)

•	Clean agricultural wastewater – removing nitrogen and potassium from cornfields, dairies or feedlots is very expensive in dollars and energy using conventional means but quite practical with algae

•	Remove pharmaceuticals from lakes – discarded prescription and over-the-counter drugs have polluted lakes and well water which can be cleaned with specific species of algae

•	Industrial heated water – many industrial manufacturing plants as well as coal-fired power plants and nuclear energy facilities use extensive fresh water for cooling. The industrial heat can be flued through algae ponds that absorb the heat and turn the heat energy into strong bonds in the green biomass

•	Water testing – algae may be used to test water for a wide range of potential toxins and other contaminants.

A cultivated algae production system that recycles water may use only 0.001 as much fresh water per pound of protein production as food grains. The minimal water requirement provides significant advantage for algae production for many global cities, towns and villages that are water insecure.