Green Blob In The Water Could Solve Our Energy Crisis

One of the biggest problems we have with energy production is it often comes with the expense of the environment. We have all seen the green blob floating when swimming in an ocean or lake, but what if it’s the key to solve our clean energy crises. Those green blobs are called Algae. It includes a large number of stemless, rootless, leafless and usually mono cellular plants that get energy from photosynthesis. There are different types of algae but they all absorb light and turn it into energy.

In order to obtain its energy, algae are grown in pools called raceways where it multiplies with the constant supply of nitrogen, carbon and sunlight. And then the runaways are drained and the algae is dried. It is not as easy as it sounds and might need a huge investment and high maintenance for large scale runaways. The dried algae can be turned into food for animals but the main intension behind this process is to generate power as biofuel.

This done by feeding the algae certain minerals and stress it in certain ways which results in algae releasing a type of oil and different things that’s are beneficial for nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals companies. These algae store their energy in the form of oil and the oil can be easily converted into biofuels. The advantage with this biofuel is it can run on gasoline, diesel and jet engines without any modification.

However, the main reason why scientists are excited about this biofuel in particular is that it produces exactly the same amount of energy as gasoline or diesel. Biofuels like these are energy sources that come from living matter. Unlike fossil fuel which taken millions of years to be formed, biofuels are made instantly which gives it an edge over fossil fuels.

Now biofuel is not a new concept. It’s been studied and experiments for a couple of decades now. Once corn was the considered an ideal source of biofuel but it takes a lot of time to grow a whole field of corn. But algae grabbed everyone’s attention later on due to the fact that it can be grown a lot faster.

On top of that, biofuel farmers only need the oil. The algae could be used for other purposes so there is no waste created. Another advantage is that algae is considered carbon neutral source as well. U.S Department of Energy believes algae could be 10 to 100 times more efficient than any other biofuel. As global warming and climate change is slowing creeping in to be major crises, biofuel made by algae could be the answer we were looking for.