Earth Hour 2011 at the Howe Sound Brew Pub was about more than just candlelight and acoustic music. Guests had the opportunity to hear about alternative fuel options in a world dependent on rapidly depleting and environmentally polluting fossil fuels.
One speaker's solution relies on an unsuspecting resource already growing rapidly in most parts of Canada - algae.
"With gas prices climbing higher and higher, it might seem hard to imagine consistently stable pricing," said Robert Eberhard, Pacific Rim BioEnergy founder.
"Now imagine you and all your neighbours filling up the tank on one of nature's most abundant forms of life - algae (or pond scum) - and your choice in using that fuel not only stabilizes the price you pay at the pump, but it virtually eliminates all regional man-made CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in the process."
According to Eberhard, algae is the most efficient oil producer of any life form on Earth.
The technology to make that transformation happen is a three-stage process that turns carbon dioxide into biodiesel.
Flou gas from large carbon dioxide emitters (that would normally emit greenhouse gases up into the atmosphere) is diverted into the algae tanks to grow vast quantities of algae. Vegetable oil is then extracted from the algae and, through a process called transesterification, is turned into biodiesel.
"During the algae growth process, you really need to partner with a source of CO2," Eberhard said, "and the most environmental way to source CO2 is to take flou emissions."
The process has already been tested and proven in labs in Vancouver.
Although vegetable oil is also considered an alternative fuel, Eberhard said there are several reasons some people prefer the next step - biodiesel.
"Some people would prefer not to undergo a conversion process," he said. "They will not want to tamper with their vehicles or the warranties associated with those vehicles - they won't want to be associated with the expense and risk."
Eberhard said converting vegetable oil into biodiesel is playing to real-world scenarios where you can pump that fuel source into diesel vehicles today.
Eberhard said he's committed to finding out whether algae can produce the amount of biodiesel that lab studies indicate it can.
"We want to confirm that the results from the lab are fairly realistic in a real-world commercial setting," he said.
"Lab settings are often very beneficial to coming up with results - we want to approach this from a pessimistic point of view and try to disprove these numbers in a commercial application."
If Eberhard can't disprove the numbers, Pacific Rim BioEnergy plans to take it to a commercial level. He plans to approach some of B.C.'s biggest carbon dioxide emitters about using their carbon dioxide to grow algae.
"Algae grows so prolifically," he said. "You can produce so much oil from algae that you can realistically replace crude oil from the petroleum project with a sustainable algae, which is really the ultimate goal - to get ourselves off of fossil fuels."
A Whistler resident, Eberhard said he hopes to locate the plant in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
"The goal is to create a biodiesel which can run vehicles in the Sea to Sky Corridor," he said. "The real goal is to reduce the carbon footprint and by creating biofuel locally for a local market. That way it requires no transportation of feedstock and no transportation to get that fuel to a destination."
He said the number of interested spectators after the Earth Hour presentation was particularly inspiring and confirms his belief that the corridor is an ideal location for this type of project.
"The Sea to Sky represents a population base that does appear to be much more concerned about the environment than most other population centres," said Eberhard.
"If you look at the results from Earth Hour, it shows that as a community we're very interested in finding sustainable solutions. I think it's good to be doing these sustainable solutions in an environment where politically, everybody is motivated to work with you."
