We Solve for X: Mike Cheiky on negative carbon liquid fuels

We Solve for X is a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork. we.solveforx.com G+: goo.gl/T3qQo
The fact is that plants have a carbon-negative phase - a time during which they remove carbon from the atmosphere. But they give it back in another phase, unfortunately. What if there was a way to take plant waste (like corn husks) and turn it into bio fuels? What if this also removed carbon from our atmosphere? What if the same process also produced a substance that would help turn deserts back into productive crop land? What if this process could be done on an industrial scale but also could be made self-contained in a small village so that farmers all over the world could get the economic benefits of producing bio fuels with their agricultural waste and simultaneously help clean our atmosphere? Too good to be true?
Mike Cheiky is the President and Founder of CoolPlanet Energy Systems, which is developing carbon negative fuels.

[@alleninsight6538]

Very important presentation! We need to BOTH phase out fossil fuels and invest in carbon negative technologies.

[@shengar1]

The one most rewarding moment of the year for me was after returning from my talk to the EPA chiefs in Montreal, I sent the text to the climate change office at DOE with a cc to Dr. Lal at OSU, the most cited soil scientist in the world, ( or as Dr.Jeff Novak at ARS joked; "In the universe" :). Dr. Lal replied to me with thanks and was impressed, commending me on conceptualizing & articulating the concept.

[@JonathanBreckenridge]

I find it interesting that you solved one of the fundamental issues with planetary colonization. with this process you can create your own fuel and food and terraform the ground so that more will grow. Very interesting.

[@ryanhobbs6999]

Mike Cheiky sold most of his startups to anonymous buyers, and his technology showed up in weapons firms supplying everything from zinc-air laptops to mobile H2 fueling systems at bases in the middle east. Google, DOE, DOD, Boeing, and Lockheed never buy into "cons", and they bought into Cheiky's work throughout his life. He was extremely wealthy from his achievements; his house and laboratory are an impressive sight built into the mountains of Santa Barbara. He was a great mind, an inventor, who just passed away last week. His 1991 DEMI Automotive zinc-air electric car still beats the pants off of any Tesla today.

[@GuiFalked]

So basically he passed and Cool Planet dropped the fuel production angle,,, guess it made enough greenwashing points for B.P. at that point. Sad. R.I.P

[@bspiner]

Amazing! I'm just glad Google is doing something like this.. Bringing it all together in one place.. Stuff that really matters.

[@funonymous]

Isn't this the most important video on youtube? Why does it only have 12k views after two months.

[@ElectroSceptic]

that is a crazy way of saying to save the invroment we need more famers that use biomas energy for aid in cultivation of farm land and alot more people farming

[@FredericPouyot]

This certainly appears amazing. One of the very important aspects will be to master the environmental aspects related to that type of mono-culture, ensuring that this does not result in massive use of pesticides. Irrigation and water management would also be huge issues, but this could be helped with solar water pumping. For that reason, decentralized systems may be more viable, quickly achievable and possibly more environmentally friendly.

[@pacus123]

The important question is how far are they from full scale commercial production? When can we start buying gas for a buck a gallon?

[@va55ag0]

What percentage of the gasoline produced by the "Biomass Fractionater" would be needed to actually _run_ the cycle - including powering the buildings, transporting the biomass to the plant etc? I'm hoping the answer is in the sub-10% range!

[@GuiFalked]

I think even -50% could be a pessimistic figure given some of the progressive construction methods being developed these days such as Siemens Home Deutschland regional HQ in Masdar City or the BIQ office complex in Hamburg. Not to mention more progressive Industries realizing the potential of passive solar power to run Industrial processes such as distillation. Transportation consumption is also being reduced greatly by not constructing massive refineries but instead smaller, regional developments that do more to provide local jobs to the regions in which the Company is operating thereby also boosting local rural economies as well. www.bitrebels.com/technology/green-tech-algae-powered-building/

[@LeoTrottier_on_Gplus]

Hopefully everyone won't just burn the biochar that the villages produce. Might need to add something that stinks horribly when it burns in order to prevent this. Awesome stuff.

[@dhalbrook]

How does that matter if we're going to have to deal with its repercussions either way?

[@bplturner]

@SalsaTiger83 They didn't say anything about quantum trickery. They were talking about catalysts which are inherently quantum mechanical. In a catalyst, you are reconfiguring electron orbitals to make chemical processes more thermodynamically favorable. The use of the word "quantum well" doesn't make this presentation necessarily snake oilish.

[@EdithWiethorn]

Hello KZbin - Is there a way to title videos so that title topics can be scanned at a glance?

[@xAtomicTwinkiEx]

Why cant everyone see this video? This is a great idea.

[@jerryshannonasteriskeyes]

here's 3 amazing ideas bundled into one great presentation and plan.. backed by google! among others :) high octane fuel (109) lower Co2 levels provide food (not listed is the capitol that'll be introduced into the local economies! to think... money came last and a byproduct ;)) Thank you for providing a potential cure to poverty & malnutrition! *cheers*

[@mrdotbryce]

@mrdotbryce What is the impact of increased pace and land ? How much are we dumping to air and sea while bringing nothing back ?

[@Otimepilot]

In 2002 the FAO of the United Nations said that only 11% of the world’s land mass is used for agriculture and twice as much is unused and available as semi-arable land. The net is there is a lot of land left to grow new crops, especially given that CoolPlanet can make their own soil amendment, making more arable land to grow more crops. I don’t think CoolPlanet wants to use forests. I think they want to use agriculture waste and to grow more crops based on their soil amendment.

[@shengar1]

The Western US States produce only ~0.3% of the total USA biomass production, but by planting 25 million hectares of agave on marginal dryland, these States could produce 1.6+ Billion tonnes of dry biomass every year, the same amount the whole US currently produces.

[@thatcobraguy9802]

Why are we not funding this???

[@naiemk]

Cool, but where do you get enough water for such a massive scale corn farm?

[@stuffedk]

It seems like there must be a catch though. How much does it cost?

[@Hollywoodlibra]

Very Cool, the produced hybrid energy can also be harnessed to provide desaltinated water from Oceans. As a matter of fact if we Arabs can do that (desaltinate ocean water into drinking water) for their populations, why can't USA farmers do it here or anyone anywhere?

[@RichardMNixon]

@SeanLumly No, they can still make the power, they just make it differently such that the carbon isn't sequestered. Or you just start burning plants. Very easy to add carbon to the atmosphere. It's only getting rid of it that's hard.

[@SalsaTiger83]

Biggest problem with this is that the technology is secretive and proprietary, and that in conjunction with talk about quantum trickery just smells bad...

[@JoshRobinson]

ok.. how do I help? What would be awesome would be to take the char and dump it into desert territories. Then we're taking a biome that captures very little carbon naturally, to growing a C4 crop which sinks a pile of carbon

[@johnnygigawatt]

Pretty Amazing

[@ElectroSceptic]

where do i appy for these jobs, they sound great

[@redtreemouse]

Intriguing but I was put off by some of his mis-statements about forests. First, old forests are not in equilibrium. We used to think they were but when scientists looked into it they realized that most old forest are still causing net sequestration of carbon. Second, when trees die they don't just immediately turn back into CO2. It can take more than 100 years for large old trees to decay. During that time, the carbon is stored and kept out of the atmosphere. Don't dis my forests man.

[@Chocolateface182]

I'm not quite sure why this has been flagged as spam. I hope this is not attempt to censor.

[@bernycrc]

Red flag #1: Thinking like a corporation, if it's so profitable why are all these companies sharing their "secret" and not keeping it for themselves??? Are they just selling another product??? Red flag #2: Most comments are from Google+ users...

[@ryanhobbs6999]

The "secret" is in the second half of the cycle that makes it work. He shows that they have accomplished these steps, but doesn't give details of how, exactly, a "biomass fractionator" performs it's job or even which fungus coats the biochar. That is proprietary information that is privy only to prospective investors. That is why it is so important that he shows his current investors, Google, GE, Microsoft, DOE, etc.; it means that after looking through his work they decided that it was fool proof to the tune of $ millions. That's impressive, given that it's hard to sell a school cafeteria a $50 investment in candy bars.

[@lmlmlmz]

in short and simple. this guy is having a bio fertilizer company? how much of energy it consume to process the bio-char?

[@nofurtherwest3474]

what's the latest?

[@shengar1]

Please view my presentation and slides of the opening talk at the 2012 USBI Biochar conference in Sonoma California. Google; "Carbon Conservation for Home, Health, Energy & Climate" ( and go to; Slides and Presentations tab ) For a full report covering major developments at the conference across the whole Biochar industry, Google; "Sonoma 2012 Biochar Conference Report;" CP has the lead sponsorship for the University of Massachusetts 2013, fourth, USBI Biochar Conference, October, 2013

[@RichardMNixon]

@SeanLumly All the carbon reduction is through sequestration of the char. You'd just stop doing that. If it was really that dire you could just start using oil again. Nonissue. I think the bigger problem is that 1% of the Earth's surface isn't exactly trivial. The claim they get food out of it too should help with that though.

[@mrdotbryce]

Growing the same crop in the same place for many years in a row disproportionately depletes the soil of certain nutrients. This has been known for 2000 years. Growing different crops in the same place for many years proportionately depletes the soil of different nutrients. Every individual and organisation promoting biofuels have the same lying slides associated erroneous cycles. What is this draining from the soil and at which pace ?

[@jmhaas9999]

somehow too good to be true. But probably worth a closer look.

[@nofurtherwest3474]

now it's 2021... where's this company?

[@shishkabobby]

The Holocene is old hat. Behold the NeoCarboniferous.

[@MaBuSt]

This technology is nice... HOWEVER he was strategic to not talk about water usage...........

[@telcodrone]

This is great!! Except for the fact that you have to be smoking something to believe that it has a chance to compete in the economic marketplace against fossil fuels. So we can subsidize it, which means costs are hidden from population through an indirect tax, or we slap a huge tax on fossil fuels. Course granny will freeze cause she can't afford to buy heating oil this winter. Make central banking a public srvc rather than privately owned driving the whole world into debt is the first step.

[@RichardMNixon]

@SeanLumly Bottom line: I think you have a minimal understanding of the processes at work here. If carbon starts going back down, fossil fuel use will no longer be a big deal. Hell, if adding carbon to the atmosphere ever becomes that urgent, we just have to light a coal mine on fire.

[@57Hulahula]

Source: "Wikipedia" -_-

[@keystothebox]

As a skeptic, I have studied this quite extensively but it sounds like you are believe propaganda. This natural phenomenon is commonly called called climate oscillation -- look it up on Wikipedia.