Advantages And Disadvantages Of Algaa

Switching from the expensive oil to alternative fuels has moved from a dream to reality. Today, there are dozens of alternatives to oil that are currently available us to be used. One alternative to oil that is being used more today is ethanol. Derived from plant materials, ethanol can be a cheaper, cleaner alternative to the gasoline that our vehicles run off. When going to gas pumps, one will notice that much of the gasoline is up to 10 percent of ethanol. According to our text, most ethanol in the U.S. is made from corn, yet ethanol can be made from any biomes-- including garbage. (Turk & Bensel, 2011)

Anything containing oil has been an increasing problem to the environment and to people. The toxicants that the oil produce harms people with their health. In the film Fuel, the director Josh Tickell talks about how crops can produce fuel, which produces cleaner air and is safer for the public. There are also other ways that Biofuel could be produced, such as adding human waste onto algae. The way that society utilizes oil is hurting the world, which in fact is affecting the human population and environment, but people only realize it until it is too late. With biofuel people would not be in danger and it could be produced without struggling to find oil.

Algae blooms have been an issue in the Chesapeake Bay, especially in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Algae is a natural and critical part of the ecosystem, however in large doses it is harmful to the plants and organisms within the ecosystem. Algae blooms can block out sunlight and kill other plants in the water. Algae depends on various factors such as water, nutrients and carbon dioxide to grow. Eutrophication of the Inner Harbor has lead to algae blooms that have caused large fish kills in the past. When there is an over abundance of certain chemical nutrients eutrophication can occur. Runoff from land and farms is the main cause of excess nutrients into the water. The most common nutrients that are related to algae outbreaks are nitrate nitrogen and phosphate. In addition, a lack of dissolved oxygen can also be an indicator for the process of eutrophication and risk of an algae outbreak. A particular type of algae commonly found in Maryland is known as Prorocentrum minimum. Prorocentrum tends to cause “mahogany tides” causing water to be brown and have an odor. There has been a campaign launched by the Healthy Harbor

The pros and cons of the current Alcan technology infrastructure seemed to be heavier on the con side than the pro side. While the intent was to better the organization with the functions that were required on the IT side, however the result was something much different than what they anticipated. “Should you spend most of your technology budget on infrastructure, hosted applications, custom line-of-business applications, or what? It depends on the industry that the business is in. Generally, most businesses spend around half of their technology budget on infrastructure—computers, networking equipment, and Internet Service Providers” (I.T. in Business, n.d.). Mistakes were made in decisions concerning the technology infrastructure of

Livestock and pets can also be affected by skin contact or swallowing harmful algae and some algae can be lethal to fish either as a result of the release

Algenol Biofuels is a company that uses GMOs to make algae. The company started in 2006 by Paul Woods. They grow the algae in saltwater instead of fresh water to conserve the fresh drinking water. The product recycles CO2 and is not harmful to any living thing. Algenol is cheaper and cleaner than gas.

What if there was an up and coming fuel that has the properties of normal oil, but its side effects were not nearly as bad? Would you support it? Well there is such a thing. It has been around for a few years, but only in the near future does it have the potential to do good on a worldwide scale. This innovation is called algae biofuel. Algae biofuel is a fuel just like gasoline or diesel, but instead of being mined from the ground, causing irreparable damage, it grows in a pond and actually has positive side effects on the environment. Algae Biomass Organization states, “Algae-derived biofuel can reduce life cycle CO2 emissions by 50 to 70 percent compared to petroleum fuels.” Algae biofuel could be one of the solutions to our polluted atmosphere.

“Harmful algal blooms are overgrowths of algae in water. Some produce dangerous toxins in fresh or marine water but even nontoxic blooms hurt the environment and local economies.” (Environmental Protection Agency). Algal blooms can be comprised of two different organisms, green algae and cyanobacteria. Green algae are eukaryotic organisms that contain chlorophyll and photosynthetic; whereas, cyanobacteria are prokaryotic organisms and classify as bacteria. They also lack a true nucleus, do not contain chlorophyll, but do obtain energy through photosynthesis. (Carolina Beyond the Tape 12) In addition, runoff containing phosphates and nitrates, water moving very slowly, and sunlight all contribute to the growth of algae blooms which is not a good thing. People and animals can be negatively affected by the dangerous substances found in algae blooms; this can cause people and animals to become sick and they could possibly die. When more water to be cleaned because of the toxins found in the water it can become very expensive. To add on, if a town or state’s main freshwater source is drastically affected by an algae bloom they can potentially lose the place that they depend on for clean water, and have to find a new one. Additionally, there are different ways for algae blooms to be harmful to an environment. For instance, algae blooms deplete the amount of oxygen in the water and

The experiment consisted of two trials, each composed of 16 separate environments, four for the control, four for .01 mole of fertilizer, four for .1 mole of fertilizer, and four for 1 mole of fertilizer. Each contained equal parts chlorella solution and distilled water, and were exposed to equal amounts of sunlight. Once every two days, measurements were taken with probes for temperature, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen, and with a colorimeter for absorbance. Dissolved oxygen levels best indicated the health of the algae, and led us the conclusion that fertilizer can permanently harm the environment in and around the place of

Last summer in Toledo, toxic algae blooms contaminated the drinking water supply of 400,000 people (Toledo water crisis, par. 1). Algae, like all organisms, normally grow in balance with their ecosystems, limited by the amount of nutrients in the water. But sometimes, algae can reproduce very rapidly, which causes damage. Harmful algal blooms have been increasing in the United States to the point where they occur along most of the coastlines and are common in many places: Specifically, Lake Erie. Lake Erie has been affected by the blooms since the 1960’s and is still being affected. The impacts of these blooms are dangerous in many ways: humans’ health is placed at risk, ecosystems are altered, and marine mammals can either be injured or

The algae growth shown in figure 1 has no clear connection due to the rapid fluctuations. With this being said, the 4 and 40 degree linear trends show a steady decrease in algae over the 13 day period while the 23 degree linear trend climbed steadily. Discussion Both table 1 and figure 1 shows that the

The source of benthic energy is sustained through three methods. The first is benthic microalgae, who are single celled and are microscopic organisms. They do primary production, it is here that cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, and diatoms reside. The second is benthic macroalgae that are the seaweeds. It has leafy reds, kelps, and sea grasses. The third is sedimentation is the sediment of particles. Primary production occurs in the surface of the ocean and once they sink to the bottom, this is primary production, but not directly.

When I was a little girl, I spent my summers rafting down and swimming in the rivers of Northern California, minutes from my house. My family would spend hours at the river weekly, having fun and relaxing by the water, but we never truly thought about what was actually in the water. Over the course of a few years, the water started becoming greener, making it so that we could not see the bottom. This cause was from the algae growth in the water. Our county started having health issues from humans and dogs alike, and every case of these issues came from swimming in the rivers. That summer, Humboldt County put a health warning out to the community, asking to stay away from the water. Of course, people would not listen, creating the epidemic of blue-green algae. Algae are the most noncomplex members of the plant kingdom, and the blue-green algae are the most plain of the algae. Blue-green algae have a substantial and increasing economic importance, they have both helpful and life threatening effects on living beings. Although they are named after algae, they are not true algae. Blue-green algae do not have a nucleus, or chloroplasts. Actually, blue-green algae are more related to bacteria, which have closer characteristics. The activity of nitrogen fixation and the occurrence of gas vesicles are extremely important to the triumph of blue-green algae. Blue-green algae are located in various locations on land and in water, generally in environments where vegetation does not

Plankton are aquatic organisms that drift throughout their environment as they posses no true motor capabilities. Within their respective aquatic habitats plankton form the productive basis of their ecosystem and are divided into two subcategories: zooplankton and phytoplankton, the later will be the primary focus of this paper. Phytoplankton, as well as other photosynthetic organisms poses pigments called chlorophyll. These pigments allow phytoplankton to convert carbon dioxide and water to oxygen and sugar, which provides the phytoplankton with energy. Due to the fact that all phytoplankton posses chlorophyll scientists have developed methods that use chlorophyll testing in order to understand more about phytoplankton as a whole. Phytoplankton posses different types of chlorophyll but scientists usually sample chlorophyll-a as it is the most abundant form (YSI Environmental, Cullen 1982, Santos 2003). Several different methods have been developed to analyze the concentration of chlorophyll-a.

The chief strategy for most algal biodiesel makers is to isolate the algal species that have a high oil content, that will also grow rapidly to make biodiesel, biocrude and drop-in fuels. Algae with high oil content such as Botryococcus braunii (Bb) grow gradually and can be harvested only limited times throughout a week, whereas algae with lesser oil content such as Dunaliella or Nannochloropsis (about 30% range) will develop more rapidly and can be harvested daily or even a few times a day. For this idea, most algal R&D designs and pre-commercial designs are utilizing algal strains with 30% oil content. Though by no means is 30% dry weight the maximum. 30% (naturally occurring) oil content will produce normally about 61,091 L of