ALGAE BIO-FUEL:
Advantages and Disadvantages
Editor's Note: Sara V. H. '16 describes the advantages and disadvantages of algae as a bio-fuel and its place as an alternative form of energy.
“A scientist announces a breakthrough in, say, battery technology or algae biofuel, and the talk ramps up quickly to full-throttle utopian, tapping into a frontier dream that’s so alluring to Americans: energy from light, self-sustaining, untethered from the grid.”
The idea of using algae as a new clean biofuel is certainly an intriguing one. The idea that algae, that seemingly insignificant water plant, could play an important role in our solution to clean energy is at first hard to grasp.
But grasping it seems to be important: when looking at the advantages of this kind of biofuel, we notice the small amount of space that growing algae takes up. We can use the ocean as the place for harvest, saving our space on land for crops. This problem of space will probably become much more prevalent in the world news, with both shrinking food supplies and a shrinking amount of space to grow it. So space is a big advantage.
So how does this phenomenon occur? The fuel harvested from the algae has everything to do with the algae’s oil. The oil extracted can be used as raw material to make the fuel that can power trains, cars, planes, etc. There are two main ways of extraction. Oil can be extracted through mechanical processes, where the oil is either pressed out of the algae or the cell walls are broken down (and the lipids – fats – are collected) through sonification (using sounds waves). Oil can also be extracted through chemical processes, which uses chemical solvents. This extracted oil is then taken to a bio-refinery to be made into the biofuel that we can use. Each method of extraction has its specific drawbacks: the mechanical press usually involves drying the algae (which takes up a lot of energy) and some of the chemical solvents used can be hazardous to our health.
Besides the efficient use of our land space, algae biofuel has some other huge advantages. Turning algae into fuel does not produce that much waste water. It is also an almost completely carbon-neutral fuel because algae take CO2 out of the air in order to grow. This creates the possibility of building algae farms next to power plants, so that that the algae can grow using the carbon emissions from the plants.
The main drawback to algae biofuel is how expensive it is to grow. It is currently much, much more expensive than crude oil. The production cost of one barrel of crude oil is around 90 dollars compared to the production costs of algae biofuel which would cost around 300 dollars.
Algae as a fuel is not a new invention. It has its beginnings in the 1970s, when high oil prices had the nation panicked. The nation financed a research project that analyzed strains of algae but this program was shut down by the Department of Energy because of high production costs. But ten years later, we were once again “addicted to oil” according to President Bush. The project started up again, along with lots of other algae programs.
But the costs of algae are still too high compared with the costs of oil. Because oil is currently not at a price that induces too much panic, hysteria, or frustration, algae remains far from an important or major fuel source. But if prices of oil skyrocket, which is likely to happen sometime in the future with the inevitable petroleum shortages, it could be the big break that algae biofuel needs to become a major source of fuel for our country.
The idea of using algae as a new clean biofuel is certainly an intriguing one. The idea that algae, that seemingly insignificant water plant, could play an important role in our solution to clean energy is at first hard to grasp.
But grasping it seems to be important: when looking at the advantages of this kind of biofuel, we notice the small amount of space that growing algae takes up. We can use the ocean as the place for harvest, saving our space on land for crops. This problem of space will probably become much more prevalent in the world news, with both shrinking food supplies and a shrinking amount of space to grow it. So space is a big advantage.
So how does this phenomenon occur? The fuel harvested from the algae has everything to do with the algae’s oil. The oil extracted can be used as raw material to make the fuel that can power trains, cars, planes, etc. There are two main ways of extraction. Oil can be extracted through mechanical processes, where the oil is either pressed out of the algae or the cell walls are broken down (and the lipids – fats – are collected) through sonification (using sounds waves). Oil can also be extracted through chemical processes, which uses chemical solvents. This extracted oil is then taken to a bio-refinery to be made into the biofuel that we can use. Each method of extraction has its specific drawbacks: the mechanical press usually involves drying the algae (which takes up a lot of energy) and some of the chemical solvents used can be hazardous to our health.
Besides the efficient use of our land space, algae biofuel has some other huge advantages. Turning algae into fuel does not produce that much waste water. It is also an almost completely carbon-neutral fuel because algae take CO2 out of the air in order to grow. This creates the possibility of building algae farms next to power plants, so that that the algae can grow using the carbon emissions from the plants.
The main drawback to algae biofuel is how expensive it is to grow. It is currently much, much more expensive than crude oil. The production cost of one barrel of crude oil is around 90 dollars compared to the production costs of algae biofuel which would cost around 300 dollars.
Algae as a fuel is not a new invention. It has its beginnings in the 1970s, when high oil prices had the nation panicked. The nation financed a research project that analyzed strains of algae but this program was shut down by the Department of Energy because of high production costs. But ten years later, we were once again “addicted to oil” according to President Bush. The project started up again, along with lots of other algae programs.
But the costs of algae are still too high compared with the costs of oil. Because oil is currently not at a price that induces too much panic, hysteria, or frustration, algae remains far from an important or major fuel source. But if prices of oil skyrocket, which is likely to happen sometime in the future with the inevitable petroleum shortages, it could be the big break that algae biofuel needs to become a major source of fuel for our country.
Algae Biofuels. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2014, from https://www1.eere.energy.gov/bioenergy/algae.html
Biodiesel - Definition, Glossary, Details. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://www.oilgae.com/ref/glos/biodiesel.html
Hitt, J. (2014, March 29). The Artificial Leaf Is Here. Again. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/technology/the-artificial-leaf-is-here-again.html?ref=science&_r=1
Why are we not Drowning in Algae Biofuel? (2014, October 16). Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Biofuels/Why-are-we-not-Drowning-in-Algae-Biofuel.html
Biodiesel - Definition, Glossary, Details. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://www.oilgae.com/ref/glos/biodiesel.html
Hitt, J. (2014, March 29). The Artificial Leaf Is Here. Again. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/technology/the-artificial-leaf-is-here-again.html?ref=science&_r=1
Why are we not Drowning in Algae Biofuel? (2014, October 16). Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Biofuels/Why-are-we-not-Drowning-in-Algae-Biofuel.html
