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    • 2013 Publication

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.


                 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
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  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • HOW TO SUBMIT
  • Past Publications
    • 2019 Publication >
      • Scientific Research
      • Mathematical Exploration
      • Scientific Exploration
      • Computer Science
    • 2018 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Scientific Research
    • 2017 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Scientific Research
    • 2016 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
      • Scientific Research
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Artistic Creations
    • 2015 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Bell Curves
        • Birds Vs. Turbines
        • Energy in the Obama Era
        • The Future of Neuroscience
        • Gender Gap in Math
        • GMOs--Yes or No?
        • The History of Minecraft: How a Swedish Indie Game Came to Dominate the World
        • The Effect of Prozac on the Brain
        • Philae Lander's Discovery of Organic Molecules
        • Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Turbines
        • Your Own Worst Enemy: An Overview of Lupus
        • The Methylhex Ban
        • The Effect of Lyme Disease on the Immune system
        • Infectious Mononucleosis
        • Replacing CFCs
        • The Switch
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • The 43rd Figure
        • The Clock
        • The Collatz Conjecture
        • Constructing a Soccer Ball
        • Determining how Ballparks Affect Batter's Ability to Create Hits
        • The Rotating Conundrum
        • Pythagorean Puzzle
        • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
        • Kinetics Lab
        • Math in the Restaurant Business
        • Math as a Vessel for Social Change
        • Sustainability of Bottled Vs. Tap Water
        • Thoughts on the Lottery
        • Understanding Player Efficiency Rating
      • Scientific Research >
        • Communicating With Computers
        • The Mystery of Asthma
        • The Nanoscopic War Against Cancer
        • Phytochemistry
        • Solving the energy crisis with Intermediate Band Solar Cells
        • A Pain That Never Ends
        • Rapamycin Resistance
        • Ampacity of a Single Core Horizontal Cable
        • Morphological Properties of Texting Acronym Formation
        • cGAS and STING Expression
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Can Humans Survive the Climate Crisis?
        • My Experience as a Teacher's Assistant
        • Ted Talk Responses
        • Teens For Food Justice
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Chandelier
        • Deltoidal Hexacontrahedon
        • Dodecahedron Card Trick
        • Eye of the Triangle
        • Free Radric Delantic Davis
        • The Grid
        • What Does A Randomly Composed Song Sound Like?
        • Science Wing Mural
    • 2014 Publication >
      • Cover Photo
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Art Using the Fibonacci Sequence
        • Computer Generated Architecture and Designs
        • Mathematical Landscape
        • Math Art
        • Math in Music
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Algae Bio-Fuel
        • An Energy Alternative
        • Clean Energy In Transportation
        • Calorie Restriction
        • Creating Energy in the Modern World
        • Dietary Intervention Impact on Gut Microbial Gene Richness
        • Earthly Applications for NASA Technology
        • Explaining Relative Motion
        • Exploring Artificial Inteligence
        • Gamma Function
        • How Leaves Work
        • Hydrogen Fuel Cells
        • Music and Brain Development
        • Programming Calculators
        • The Science of Microsatellites
        • Sci-Fi Taser
        • Sloane's Gap
        • Sustainable Energy: Why Some Ideas Shine Brighter than Others
        • Understanding The Galvanic Cell
        • The Virus: Our Unforeseen Philosopher's Stone
        • What Are Fuel Cells and How Do They Work?
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • Astrocytes Expressing ALS-Linked Mutated SOD1 Release Factors Selectively Toxic to Motor Neurons
        • Big Bang
        • Dictyostelium Discoideum
        • The Future of Solar Cell Technology
        • And Many More...
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Alternative Energy Sources, New but Unused
        • An Insight Into the Curious World of Ethnobotany
        • Challenging What We Think We Know
        • The Current State of American Education
        • Discovering New Numbers
        • Interview With an Architect
        • Life of Pi Response
        • Mathematical Art Video Commentary
        • Missing from Science Class
        • The Museum of Math
        • The Inside Scoop on a Real Mathematician
    • 2013 Publication