Green Algae Has Potential to Take Over Biofuel Industry

New biofuel technologies could revolutionize the green energy market.

Imagine new green high-rise buildings. No, not just green as in low carbon footprint, but buildings actually powered by green algae. Imagine green algae containers attached to the sides of high-rise buildings, reaching all the way to the roof. These containers, called photobioreactors (PBR), are similar to huge glass water tanks with algae, allowing sunlight to stimulate algae growth and produce highly efficient biofuel.
Having already a variety of biofuels made from corn, sugar cane, canola, and soybeans, why would one bother with algae? One of the latest researches, aimed at producing biofuels, has discovered that algae can produce a lot more energy than all other fuels combined. It could generate 30 times more energy per unit area than most other biofuels derived from crops.

Such a discovery could create a whole new biofuel industry based on algae—not to mention the cost savings from reducing excess crop production.

The United States Department of Energy estimated that 15,000 square miles of algae (a bit larger than the size of Maryland) could replace all of the petroleum currently being used in the United States. By comparison, if you plant corn for biofuel use, you would need around 4 times the area of United States to meet current fuel level demands.

“I think algae is one of the only viable technologies,” said Jason Pyle, the CEO of Sapphire Energy, the maker of algae-based fuels. “What else can scale to 10 billion, 50 billion gallons? Very few sources,” said Pyle, referring to algae’s huge energy generation potential, which requires no arable area and no water.

The Epoch Times