Algae Based Biofuel Production: The New Wave Of Green Energy

The "green" trend has been around since the 1970s, when an OPEC boycott, gas rationing, and spiking prices called into question our reliance on oil. The creation of suburbs and expansion of cities led to increased numbers of large, gas-guzzling cars on the road, and air pollution was growing more prevalent, begging the question, "How can we find inexpensive, clean, renewable energy?"



Enter the Biofuel Revolution. Biofuel is any fuel produced from biomass, or organic material. The challenge is to produce biofuel from biomass that can be renewed, so that it won't tap out as a fuel source the way oil reserves will. With recent gas price hikes and the number of SUVs and inefficient fuel-burning vehicles on the road today, the issue of biofuel production is once again at the forefront. Some recent biofuels, such as ethanol, have met with limited success: Yes, ethanol waste is mostly water and ethanol is cheap. But the amount of land and energy that goes into planting, maintaining, and harvesting corn for ethanol, on top of ethanol production, make it much less environmentally-friendly than previously thought. Plus, there are ethical considerations about growing fields of food crops just for biofuel production.

Energy investors today are putting efforts into a new solution: algae based biofuel production. Algae use sunlight, ocean and wastewater to grow, and produce oil that is then harvested. The amount of oil that can be produced for biofuel from 15,000 square miles of algae farms is estimated by the US Department of Energy to be enough to replace all petroleum-based fuel in the country. That statistic is astounding: algae based biofuel production would use less than one-seventh of the land dedicated in the US to corn production, and would produce up to 100 times more energy per square mile. Algae are also biodegradable, and unlike petroleum, are relatively harmless if spilled. Best of all, algae don't require high-quality soil, so farms producing algae could use land unsuitable for food crops.



With the discovery of clean algae based biofuel production, what is holding back the market? The answer is the same as with many biofuels of the past: High prices. Capital investments to set up a farm are costly. In time, these investments will be recouped and prices will drop, however. And with oil prices rising steadily, green biofuel may be competitively priced sooner than we thought. Good news for green energy.