FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. So what does MARG Energy do?
MARG Energy is in the waste recovery business; our chief scientist discovered that what many consider a useless product actually had hidden value. Everything that goes up a smokestack is not useless. In fact, everything that goes up a chimney or smokestack is actually full of the food source all green plants love to eat. MARG Energy set out to find a way to use the emissions emanating from smokestacks everywhere and repurpose them through algae at the very same location that the emissions are found. MARG believes that business should be sustainable and environmentally conscious. We have discovered the solution, produced a prototype to test our theories in real time, and made sure that this design will not only work, but thrive. In fact the design is so robust that we can’t tell you just how much a growth enhancement has been found; let’s just say that our course to grow the most amounts of algae from the smallest footprint is an understatement.
Q. What are algae?
Algae are a living organism which mimic plant-like biology by utilizing photosynthesis to derive food from CO2 and other gases. Microalgae live in water, Macro algae live on the surface of water, and emergents start growing in water then emerge from the water as regular air-breathing plant biology.
Q. Why not grow algae in an open pond like everyone else?
Growing algae in a pond has many faults in that airborne contaminants exist and can overtake the desired strain of algae you’re trying to grow. The open pond usage is also limited in growing algae only in perfect weather conditions. This design was not good enough for us at MARG Energy. We knew there was a way to exceed and be able to grow the algae 24 hours a day.
See the Product Importance page to learn more.
Q. What is a photo bioreactor?
A photo bioreactor is a system to grow microorganisms outside their natural but inside an artificial environment most of the time. MARG Energy calls our photo bioreactor system a BioMass Module.
Q. What is the MARG Energy photo bioreactor and why is it better?
MARG Energy’s innovator decided to place his photo bioreactor system (BioMass Module) into a cargo container, similar to a snail inhabiting a dormant shell for life. It took just over eight years, reviewing hundreds of designs, and asking thousands of questions to create a perfect design which uses less power and is sourced by renewable energy. All energy needs come from geothermal heating or cooling, solar panels, and wind turbines. MARG Energy uses the smallest physical footprint for its photo bioreactor and yet is able to produce huge quantities of algae, then turn the algae biomass into a useful product to other industries.
See the Product Importance page to learn more.
Q. Why is there so much interest in growing algae from emissions from power plants?
The earth as it stands today has only so much arable land. In order to produce more food crops, more fuel and more products, we can’t continue to use land-based ponds to produce algae. Also, industry needs to lessen their emissions and re-metabolize the CO2 that is entering our air. This is a dire situation. As the human population increases, finding the right design is key to leading the emissions conversion revolution.
Q. As the world population continues to increase, why is algae important?
Algae can provide the ingredients needed by industry to make the products we want. Algae byproducts are vital to feed and fuel our lives – believe it or not, algae is found in vitamins, essential minerals, oils, and pharmaceuticals.
See What We Do to learn more.
Q. Are algae plants, or are they like bacteria?
Algae are not plants but they do perform photosynthesis to produce the food to grow. In very few strains of algae (a strain is a single species of algae) that exist with only one cell, algae are classified as bacteria. For example: One single cell strain of algae is called Cyanobacteria (Blue/Green color) and has been found to be very useful, as well as deadly to humans. Additional information determining the differences of algae from plant life can be found here: http://www.sciences360.com/index.php/why-algae-fungi-and-microbes-are-not-considered-plant-life-25318/
Q. Carbon dioxide cleaning using algae in my home is already prevalent across the internet. Why is yours better?
Most Internet examples explaining the concept of growing algae to consume carbon dioxide in your home are attempting to teach you about how to “grow algae,” not to clean your air. Our design is purposed to grow the most amount of algae in the smallest footprint.
See the Product Importance page to learn more.
Q. How do I calculate the amount of algae home units that I would need to clean my air?
An in-house questionnaire/survey would answer these important questions and most likely will be performed by your local authorized HVAC dealer. Questions will ascertain the requirements of existing ductwork to handle the air movement, the square footage of the home and living space(s), or the number of people & animals living in the home. MARG Energy will incorporate this information and determine the number of units needed for the home.
Q. What are Carbon Credits, and how are they calculated?
One credit equals 1 tonne of carbon dioxide collected, sequestered, or converted to biomass. The value of one tonne of carbon dioxide converted to algae biomass is currently ~$10.00 per tonne.
Q. What can algae be used for?
MARG Energy has done plenty of research into all the uses of algae. They include the industry of Food, Fuel, and Pharmaceuticals. The three main parts of an algae cell are:
Oils or fatty tissue (otherwise known as lipids) – They produce the oils which we can convert to any known biofuel requirement through conversion processes.
Carbohydrates – Lactic Acid, Chitin, Biodegradable Plastics, Polymers & Coatings
Proteins – Residual Amino Acids, Isocyanates, Animal and Fish Feed, and Urethanes
See What We Do to learn more.
Q. Won’t SOX & NOX kill the algae?
Our Atmosphere is made up of several gases. More than 80% is made up of Nitrogen – NOX is Nitrogen Oxide, an inert gas that exists and as humans we really do not pay any attention to it. Oxygen makes up ~18% of our atmosphere and we can’t live without it. The remaining is the miniscule 2% of everything else, which includes Argon, Neon, Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide and a few others. In the 1950’s it was remarked that home owners felt most comfortable when they were able to have their home CO2 level s near 295ppm (ppm = Parts per Million). Today’s measurements rarely ever go below 800ppm in homes and 1200ppm in offices and retail shops. Dangerous levels of CO2 can be found here:
SOX – Sulfur Oxide – is a different story and will need to be scrutinized by our team to best determine equipping our modules to remove this unwanted contaminate. We know that algae need sulfur to grow and we plan to re-use this material.
Q. What is a Cargo Container and how big are they?
A cargo container is the metal box you see on the back of tractor trailer trucks. They also sit two-high on railway cars and can fit up to ten-high on ocean vessels. Most are 8 feet wide by 8 feet tall and up to 40 feet long, requiring 320 square feet of space.
Q. Industry leaders say Algae consume a lot of water?
Yes they do but all of it can be recycled back in to the system so less than 10% can be lost to normal propagation of the material through its paces in developing the final product. Because we also plan to work at power plants, most use excessive amounts of water to cool their operating generation turbines. We plan to take the heated water and cool the steam back into sterilized water for use in our algae operation. Whatever heat is leftover can be used to produce additional electricity. As an added bonus, any residual heat will be converted to warm the algae to optimum performance.
Q. Industry analysts warn that growing large amounts of algae will raise fertilizer prices. Will they?
Actually we won’t be utilizing any particular fertilizer over another. Our needs are the remnants of the coal-fired power plant ash.
Q. Industry is not just based on huge power plants. What other platforms do you conform to?
MARG Energy designed our system to be scalable and modular; one size doesn’t fit all situations, but we tried to build a system that can be configured for the largest combustible power plant down to the home owner. Homeowners will in the future be able to install a device similar in size to an HVAC unit in your home.
See our Residential Product page to learn more.
Q. Under your Mission Statement, you mention food, fuel and pharmaceuticals. What types of food is algae use in today?
Algae is currently used in the ice cream manufacturing as a thickener, it’s also used in puddings, coffee creamer, cottage cheese, frozen yogurt, margarine, mayonnaise, pet food, toothpaste and the list goes on.
Q. Please show examples of usage in pharmaceuticals if you can.
Algae are found in many things from vitamins and minerals used in our daily regimes, to the farther reaching ingredients of amino acids and chlorophyll. Additionally, cancer-fighting drugs like Lycopene and Astaxanthin (a member of the beta-carotene family).
Q. How did you come up with this idea?
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. It was devastating with a violent surge of unexpected destruction. The oil price per barrel went from $50 per barrel to nearly $70 per barrel creating havoc in the retail arena as prices surged. Our principal scientist, Clint LeRoy, took this as a task to urgently devise a way to overcome this tremendous upheaval of price for our oil. He looked at every nuance of crop growth and how we could develop a way to overcome the demand for oil, and hence the rise in oil prices. He looked at utilizing existing wastes streams of humans with an effort to turn them into useful products so that we can become better prepared when disaster hits.
In 2006, on a lonely Friday night at a local pub, Clint sat at a table with a stranger and started discussing hoop farming – a method to extend farming operations for several weeks longer before spring and after fall and the first freeze would occur. In this method, crops could be grown getting two or three crop rotations. However, after review, these extensions were not going to be enough to source oil based products with agronomy solutions. The discussion went further – discussing alternative methods utilizing algae in tubing racks and open air ponds. While the mention of algae was not something new to Clint LeRoy, it was not the first time he had heard of the biology water grown product. ON July 10, 2006 an idea was born! If we could find the exponentially driven productive methodology to grow algae in a closed device called a bioreactor, he just might have a solution.
Clint is driven to succeed, and observes life from an innovator’s point of view. What we see can alter our productive ability to correct problems and overcome adversities. Now eight years plus later, after much research and development, the design has been finalized and a scaled down model built and tested. The methodology proves that algae can be grown in high rates and with a small footprint. With Clint’s vision, it may even be possible to grow algae in space, aiding astronauts in cleaning their air and growing food.
Q. What is Biomass?
Biomass is everything that comes from a seed or spore, including algae.
Q. When talking about our fuel supply, will algae supplies be similar to soybean oil?
No. The exact oil that is being pumped up from deep beneath the planet’s surface is in fact an oil derived from an algae strain. We have that strain, and we can grow that strain today. So this means that we will never run out of oil for the next 250 years, or as long as the coal reserves last.
If Pennsylvania took all the emissions from its top 41 coal-burning power plants and converted all emissions to a fuel-based algae oil, Pennsylvania could supply the entire United States with oil at the going rate of 8 million barrels of crude oil per day.