Algae Biofuel

The report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), consisting of more than 150 scientists, states that (Stocker, 2013) “Warming in the climate system is unequivocal and since 1950 many changes have been observed throughout the climate systems that are unprecedented over decades to millennia.” In the last quarter of twentieth century, the climate change problem has been the global issue. From the

In the current era, fossil fuel is a necessity in our everyday life, for not only it is used as an energy source, but also due to the high rate of dependability on the fuel itself. The recent drop in oil prices caused an enormous impact on the world economy, especially to the countries that are highly dependent on the fuel industry. The United States also are affected by this situation. One suggestion and a major change, in order to reduce the high dependency on the fossil fuel and to overcome the problems related to the usage of fossil fuel, is to start the wide use of biofuel as the fossil fuel replacement. The impact of this change, and also a huge improvement, not only will help to stabilize the economy, but also can help in reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Climate change is happening – the extensive and critically accepted reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have removed any remaining doubt.

First, reduction of GHG, carbon capture and sequestration. Reduction of GHG is one of the most challenging tasks currently facing by the world scientists. Although a minor reduction process has been succeeded, but they were used synthetic chemicals, which are in fact not good for the environment. In consideration of this realism for protecting the future, my research will be focused to reduce GHG by developing new technologies on the biological mechanisms and without using any chemicals (Fig. ---). As I mentioned above (patent pending), I have already succeeded to reduce GHG up to 12%. In this long term project, I have targeted to clean the air 90% by reducing the harmful anthropogenic GHGs as necessary. In this aspect, Carbon capture and sequestration is a very potent technique. Following this approach, carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon will be processed for a long-term storage. This process will be focused to capture CO2 by mimicking nature’s process for hardening tissues in living organisms. This is a similar biological process of corals and other calcifying organisms (ref--). However, here I would use a newly discovered group of microbes (described in the patent). In this technique, CO2 will be used as a potential beneficial material to produce highly useful products such as beneficial mineral for human health (fig--, showing some crystals). In addition, some natural material (following the patent Aqua-NOF-GHG with

For over forty years now, scientists and researchers have been tirelessly searching for an alternative to fossil fuels. Biofuels have become an interesting contender in the search for the replacement of the non-renewable energy source. Biofuels have been used throughout history for over thousands of years. There is a large debate over biofuels and its true impact on the environment. Those involved in the discussion debating whether biofuels have any real overwhelming benefits compared to fossil fuels could argue for its usage. According to recent research performed by the University of Michigan, biofuels may not be the best alternative for fossil fuels. Regardless of its impact on the environment, biofuels are becoming more popular particularly when the price of oil rises.

There are several research projects currently tackling this issue. Some have found methods to convert CO2 into methanol, or hydrocarbon fuel. But these are not very useful at this time. Other attempts have produced products that are either too expensive or not scalable.

Now scientists from a team spanning Harvard University’s Faculty for Biologically Inspired Engineering have created a system that uses bacteria to convert solar energy into a liquid fuel. Their work integrates an “artificial leaf,” which uses a catalyst to make sunlight split water into hydrogen and oxygen, with a bacterium engineered to convert carbon dioxide plus hydrogen into the liquid fuel isopropanol.

Carbon Dioxide is the main contributor to greenhouse gases in the global climate change. CO2 is released from power plants and vehicles all over the world. Approximately 62 million cars are registered in the US alone, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. There are also 2,775 power plants in the US alone. 30,000 parts per million of Carbon Dioxide are released from the 700-degree Fahrenheit fumes into the atmosphere from the turbines at Moss Landing power plant along the California coast is an example of the amount of CO2 released from one single power plant. This new idea of technology would reduce the amount of the greenhouse gas CO2 being released into the atmosphere and would capture and store it in cement.

The world’s demand of fossil fuels is slowly diminishing by the growing use of biofuels. May it be ethanol or biodiesel its one step closer to a greener earth. From peanut oil to bark, science is being done to convert plants into energy.

Algae are a "group of plants" that dominate the aquatic environment (Raymount, 1984). Organisms that make up the algae include representatives from three kingdoms and seven divisions: cyanochloranta and prochorophyta (from Kingdom Monera), pyrrhophyta, chrysophyta, phaeophyta, and rhodophyta (from Kingdom Protista), and chlorophyta (from Kingdom Plantae). All seven divisions are called algae because of a lack of roots, stems, and leaves; and most algal cells are fertile. The basic metabolic processes are located in the individual cell and all lack the xylem/phloem transport system of "higher plants". These different plant-like organisms have been used for human food and animal follage.

Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities (IPCC 2001).

Leung et. al. (2014) posit that post-combustion capture methods are easily applicable for retrofitting existing plants, and require simply that carbon dioxide be isolated from flue gas generated by fossil fuel burning. However, due to the low concentrations of CO2 in flue gas, the system efficiency is poor and it must be operational for long periods of time until CO2 receptacles are filled. This incurs heightened operation costs for maintaining the functioning machinery. Oxyfuel combustion techniques, while less easily installed at traditional burning plants and thus in use only at commercial demonstration plants, can capture carbon at much higher efficiencies by burning fuel in oxygen as opposed to air. However the

The most authoritative and objective source of information on climate change (or global warming, as some prefer to use) is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group that began researching climate change in 1992. The IPCC was launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organizations (WMO) in order to "…provide an objective source of scientific information" (UN.org). It was clear by the middle of the 20th century, the UN explains, that as a "…side effect of the industrial age…human action had significantly increased the production of…carbon dioxide" one of the main greenhouse gases that contributes to global climate change.

CO2 is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) and emission of CO2 to the atmosphere needs to be reduced in order to mitigate climate change. It is imperative to device ways of proper CO2 utilization and storage. CO2 can be sequestered geologically as well as there are other ways of CO2 utilization which can be economically viable in places where geological storage is not the most optimal solution. In the present study, the primary focus is on the integration potential of two GHG abatement options, which are geological sequestration of CO2 and biological sequestration of CO2 via microalgae growth, harvest and conversion to bioproducts. There are several ways of microalgae conversion to an array of products, as discussed in the previous sections. The present study aims to quantify the techno-economic tradeoffs and optimize the entire supply-chain of CO2 utilization to ensure the most economically feasible alternative of CO2 usage. A multi-scale optimization framework is proposed. The mathematical framework is provided in Figure 2. The model takes into account the design of pipeline network for CO2 transport, different processing routes for microalgae conversion as well as CO2 geological storage. A case-study is considered to assess the optimal design of GHG capture, storage and/or utilization for the state of Texas in United States. Such an effort will help inform decision and policy makers the optimal pathway of CO2 storage and utilization procedures for a particular location.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by the United Nations (UN) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in 1988. It defines climate change as “any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity”.