Algae biofuel, are we getting closer?
May 30, 2008
It’s possible that the green slime we try to eradicate from our fish ponds could be the answer to our fuel problems. As it dawns on the world that biofuels made from food products are not really such a hot idea, scientists have quietly been studying algae as the next biofuel.
Not only does algae grow pretty much anywhere-from sewage sludge to fresh or salt water, it has a theoretical yield of several times that of corn with a lower processing cost. A 2004 study at University of New Hampshire concluded that all the transportation fuels in the United States could be supplied by algae grown on about 3% of the U.S. land devoted to farming crops and grazing for animals.
Pipe dream? Some say so. There has been a lot of hype over algae based biofuel, and a lot of money is being invested, but whether it’s a scalable alternative is yet to be proven. Arizona based GreenFuel is one of the leaders in the field. Their idea is to pump the CO2 emissions from coal plants into the GrenFuel bioreactors where the algae would eat the emissions as food. The algae is then processed and the biofuel extracted.
Aurora BioFuels in Alameda California is using genetically modified algae to create a high oil content and can create “bio-diesel with 125X higher yields and 50% lower costs than current production methods”.
But when genetic modification rears it’s ugly head -especially near the fragile San Francisco bay’s ecosystem- people may not be so enthused. Another start-up, Green Star, is enhancing production with nutrients, claiming they
If you’re interested in learning more as progress crawls forward, check out the Algae Biomass Summit
to be held in Seattle in October.
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