Due to the increase on oil prices, food crisis and competition on the demand of foods and biofuel, this led to the interest of algae farming for making vegetable oil, biodiesel, biogasoline, bioethanol as well as other biofuels that is into the use of land which are found not suitable for agriculture. Algae actually have the potential in providing a good source of biodiesel, hydrogen and ethanol fuels. Microalgae is considered to be a fast growing photosynthesizing organisms which has the capability to complete its whole growing cycle for every few days. There is in fact about 50% on the weight of algae that’s comprised of oil than oil palm only having about 20% of its weight in oil.
AlgaeBarn farming is a good alternative when it comes to making vegetable oils, biodiesel as well as other biofuels. Microalgae is a one-celle, photosynthetic microorganism which is in fact abundant in various kinds of marine environments everywhere on earth. The potential of algae production commercially is expected to be grown in translucent tubes or in containers that are known as photo bioreactors or through open ocean algae bloom harvesting. Other known advantages of it includes the processing of algae biomass through gasification in order to create syngas, the use of waste streams from municipalities as water sources, growing carbohydrate rich algae strains for the cellulosic ethanol and for carbon capture from smokestacks in order to help increase the growth rate of algae.
Algae in fact have certain qualities, making it a good option for biodiesel production. Compared to the corn-based biodiesel which competes with food crops on land resources, production methods of algae in photobioreactors for algae ponds can in fact complement than having to compete with other biomass-based fuel options. Compared with the other forms of biodiesel crops, algae actually does not need too much input of carbon intensive fertilizers. You could actually find some algae species which is grown in waters with high amounts of salt, which means that this is not a problem on freshwater supplies.
Some companies as well as government agencies in fact are funding efforts for them to reduce capital as well as its operating costs and to make the fuel production of algae commercially viable. Based on a recent study, genetic engineering could help improve the fuel efficiency of algae because algae could be modified in building short carbon chains rather than long chains of carbohydrates.
There are some companies that uses chemically-induced mutations to create an algae which is suitable for use as a crop. Some even have commercial interests towards large-scale algal-cultivation systems that wants to connect with the existing infrastructure such as cement factories, coal power plants or sewage treatment facilities. Visit this link or homepage to learn more info. about where to buy algae.