Algae Fuel

Crude oil price has been on the upswing for the past few years. As I am writing this post, it is costing more than US$130 per barrel. Scientists, governments and entrepreneurs all scramble to find alternatives to petrol oil. One possible solution is to generate biofuel from algae.

Will the horribly-looking algae be our savior?

Specially bred algae strains are not only great natural oil source, but also can be used to absorb carbon dioxide and thus slow down global warming – killing two birds with one stone.

But there are other sources of biofuels, such as corn and palm oil. What is so special about algae? Firstly, algae has very high oil yield – 7 to 30 times better than the next best crop. Secondly, unlike corn or oil palm, there is no need to clear forest for algae farming. It is estimated that if algae fuel were to fully replace petroleum in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles, which is a few thousand square miles larger than Maryland or 1.3 times the size of Belgium. That is less than 1/7^th the area of corn harvested in the U.S. in 2000.

Algae farming

To learn more about algae fuel, click the links below:

Wikipedia: Algaculture

Wikipedia: Algae fuel

Comparing biofuels:

BusinessWeek: A Bevy of Biofuels

Companies that are producing algae fuel:

PetroAlgae

GreenFuel Technologies Corporation