Eine schleimige Affäre

[Rheinbund]

A biotechnological laboratory in Eiffelland

"You know the problem, Herr Minister. Oil, natural gas, coal, we will run out of it one day. And now with all those wars, there is a chance that the oil prices will go up."
"I know. That's why we are looking for alternatives. Unfortunately, biofuels from sunflowers and coleseed won't do the trick. We will need too much agricultural grounds for that. But we heard that you have something interesting."
"Indeed. We managed to create algae which can produce kerosine. We are working on algae which can produce other fuels as well. And per liter of fuel on far less ground surface and for far less resources than would be feasible with sugarcane, coleseed and sunflowers."
"Well, how does it work then?"

And the team of researchers showed the Minister for Scientific Research Stimulation Dr. Friedrich Merz around and explained the process of DNA-modification which led to the kerosine producing algae, and what further was needed for the complete process.

"Thank you very much for your explanation, gentlemen. I will discuss it in the next government meeting," Minister Dr. Merz said after the meeting with the scientists.

One week later, the government decided to allocate an enormous budget to this project, and to build a bunker complex for the team of researchers working on the fuel producing algae. A slimey affair had been started.

OOC 1: I have to look for links, but I heard that Air France-KLM already plans to fly on kerosine produced by algae. As far as I know, this is an existing technique.
OOC 2: Please consider this OOC-knowledge, and treat is as OOC-knowledge as well. So nobody knows about me working on it ICly yet.
OOC 3: A short post, because I am in a hurry, and I wanted to put this on track soon.

 

[Rheinbund]

Secret biotechnological facilities in Eiffelland

In a relatively short time span, secret biotechnological facilities had been built throughout Eiffelland, all focused on finding ways to ameliorate the process of obtaining biofuels, through geneticly modified crops and through algae. It was an idea from the Chancellor to follow this two-track approach, after a discussion he had with the scientists on the algae project.

It turned out that using algae for biofuel production had some disadvantages. The algae grew and produced enormously when extra CO2 and fertilisers were applied, but that had a cost disadvantage. The CO2 needed to be collected and transported, and the fertilisers needed to be produced and transported. "But what if we collect the CO2 directly from its producers — factories, office buildings and houses?" the Chancellor suggested. Then he realised that it would not be possible to collect all the CO2 produced by burning processes out of the air, so he ordered the development of crops producing much biofuel for little ground usage, so that the crops could filter the CO2 out of the outside air. At the same time, however, the biofuel production through algae would be ameliorated and better organised as well, because it was clear that that would be the cheapest solution if organised well. And also a solution which could become available soon in case of acute oil shortages, for instance because of a war in an oil-rich area.

The scientists discovered that the algae could do their work on waste water. It was decided to redirect the sewer system of the nearby town to the research facility. After this was done, it appeared that far less fertilisers were needed. Maybe even none. This was researched further.
The owner of a nearby factory agreed to have the chimneys of his factory redirected to the research facility. The scientists would start to experiment with using the CO2 in the waste air of that factory for the algae.

In total, three research complexes had been built, spread over the country. All three had been housed in underground bunker complexes. The scientists working on the three locations had daily contact with each other and exchanged information about the projects. Backups of the computer networks were made automatically and regularly. The backups were stored externally in facilities which could even survive a nuclear attack. Computers with access to the Internet were kept physically separate from the networks on which the research data were collected.

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