Mean Green

One of the most exciting and promising new technologies in the search for new ways of fueling the vehicles of the future is definitely algae oil. Many people are quite surprised by the fact that the oil found in “pond scum” known as algae actually holds a lot of promise for being a potential new source of fuel. Indeed, with the growing concern over gasoline and its ever rising costs, as well as the amount of pollution it generates, researchers are turning more and more to algae oil as a real possibility and an answer to this sometimes troubling question.

Many people do not realize that almost 50 percent of algae’s weight is made out of oil. The oil is essentially a lipid form, and can easily be used to create biodiesel that can fuel many different kinds of vehicles, including cars and trucks. While electricity is very popularly talked about as a replacement for gasoline and regular oil, algae oil is considered to be potentially more feasible, as it is so abundant around the world and would not require people to have to recharge their vehicles.

Algae oil is a truly renewable energy source, unlike gasoline. While average, every day algae is found in ponds and other bodies of water all over the world, it can actually also be grown and farmed quite easily. Many people are already experimenting with growing algae in a much more efficient manner. While ponds have a set limit to how much of its surface is exposed to the sunlight needed by algae to grow, commercial farming techniques are being developed that can grow amazing quantities of algae in relatively little space.

Corn and soybeans are other examples of potential sources of biofuel; however, more algae can be grown and produced per acre than either one of these plants. The oils needed from algae are easy to extract, and they are much better for the environment that gasoline. Thanks to the exciting potential of algae oil, researchers are working at a feverish pace to try and come up with efficient applications of it so that the general public – and the world – can soon enjoy its benefits.

Most people know that it is very critical for the environment and the economy to come up with alternative energy sources than gasoline; indeed, exhaust from cars running on gasoline are one of the biggest contributors to pollution on the planet. It is hoped that algae oil can become a viable solution for this vexing and worrisome problem. Maybe some day, extracting oil from algae will be the most common method for obtaining fuel for our vehicles. It is certain that the benefits to the environment – and our wallets – will be huge.

Biofuels are hot. But how hot? Here are “just the facts.” But first, what are biofuels? These are fuels derived from plants or animal fat that can replace such familiar oil-based transportation fuels as gasoline or diesel.

Ethanol can be distilled from corn, sugarcane or even straw and other cellulosic plant materials such as wood chips or grasses. Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oil crops such as palm, soybeans or rapeseed, or animal fats and leftover restaurant grease.

High oil prices, technological advances, concerns about energy security and the environment, and efforts to revitalize rural economies have all intersected to drive the biofuels boom. Ethanol has been used as a gasoline additive or stand-alone fuel in the United States and Brazil since the 1970s, but in recent years there has been an explosion of interest, resulting in substantial investment and steeply increased production.

Biodiesel is relatively new in the U.S., but has attracted strong interest and investment as well. There are 113 ethanol plants producing today in the U.S., with a capacity of 5.6 billion gallons per year or 365,000 barrels per day (bd).

Another 84 ethanol plants are either under construction or expanding, which could add another 6.1 billion gallons of annual production capacity (400,000 bd) in the next few years. A barrel of ethanol contains 3.54 million British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy, while a barrel of gasoline contains 5.25 million BTUs. This means that a gallon of ethanol only provides about 70 percent of the energy that one gets from a gallon of gasoline. A state-of-the-art ethanol plant today can convert a bushel of corn into about 2.8 gallons of fuel ethanol. Two decades ago, this figure was closer to 2 gallons.

n the United States, blenders of ethanol receive a 51 cent-per gallon tax credit for every gallon of ethanol used in gasoline; for biodiesel, the equivalent credit is $1.00 per gallon. In 1980, the U.S. consumed a grand total of 11,000 barrels of ethanol per day. By early 2007, that demand had reached about 400,000 barrels per day, or over four percent of the total gasoline market by volume.

Current federal legislation requires 7.5 billion gallons (490,000 bd) of biofuel use by 2012. The Bush administration recently proposed a target of 35 billion gallons (2.3 million bd) of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017-a goal that would likely require major advances in cellulosic ethanol technology.

In 2006, the ethanol sector consumed nearly 2.2 billion bushels of corn-about 20 percent of the total U.S. harvest of 10.7 billion bushels. Ethanol can be produced from non-food crops, such as switchgrass and straw. But this approach can’t yet compete in the marketplace. There is currently intense interest in making this process-”cellulosic ethanol”-commercially viable.

The US biodiesel industry is much smaller than the ethanol industry. Current annual production is estimated at 250 million gallons (16,000 bd), although it is growing quickly. Europe is currently the world leader in biodiesel production and use. Annual production is currently over 1.5 billion gallons (100,000 bd) with substantial new capacity under construction.