Algae Fuel Is It The Future ?
>>Find out how I started making my own biodiesel without spending hardly anything <<
Algae fuel isn’t as strange as it sounds, and it may be the answer to the world’s fuel problems. The fossil fuels that power the world’s industries actually originated from algae, through a process that breaks down these organisms into usable oil over millions of years. All that oil that we’re burning up, then, is from prehistoric algae. The problem is that we’re using up this precious, prehistoric resource faster than it can be naturally reproduced.
Some scientists from the Arizona State University may have found a way for us to harvest oil from algae without having to wait millions of years. The researchers have developed methods for speeding up the process, accelerating the reproductive rate of these organisms and hastening the accumulation of oil and lipids in their cells. The oil produced by these cultured algae mimics the oil we harvest from the ground, producing a viable fuel substitute from a green, renewable source. ASU has developed a two acre site where algae can be cultivated for fuel on a small scale. The system can then be scaled up into commercial production in the near future.
In San Francisco, a promising startup produces jet-grade fuel using oil harvested from algae. Solazyme cultivates different strains of algae to produce different kinds of oil. The company’s scientists feed their algae biomass in the form of petroleum by-products that would normally be considered waste. For example, bio-diesel waste glycerol is considered filthy material and normally disposed of as chemical waste. The algae consume this waste material and very efficiently convert it into oil. Another company in Florida, PetroAlgae, calls itself America’s fuel farm. It takes a full year of crop production to make ethanol out of corn or biodiesel out of soybean. But for PetroAlgae, to get from seed to harvest-ready “crop” takes all of two days. The ripe algae are then exposed to sunlight, then collected and put through a centrifuge, which separates the sludgy material into a powdery substance that’s used as animal feed, and crude oil. PetroAlgae plans to build industrial scale bio-reactors beside power plants, with the algae fueling the plants, while the emissions from the power plants — carbon dioxide — feed the algae.
However, promising as these developments may be, the true measure of success for these companies depends on two vital factors. First, can algae fuel serve as a plug-in replacement for diesel and other fuels? Second, can it be profitable? Solazyme and PetroAlgae happen to think the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes”! Solazyme has been able to run their fuel on unmodified, commercial vehicles. PetroAlgae, on the other hand, says that the cost of producing diesel fuel from algae is comparable to conventional diesel production. Both companies believe that staying within these parameters is important to prove that the technology is viable and its business component is sustainable.
With worldwide oil prices skyrocketing uncontrollably, the disgusting pond scum that produces algae fuel may be the solution to the world’s impending energy problems.
>>Find out how I started making my own biodiesel without spending hardly anything <<
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