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Essay On Analyse

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The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) currently uses a cogeneration facility that uses methane gas to supply electricity and heat to the campus. Although the cogeneration facility saves eight million dollars a year, the use of methane gas does not follow the goals of carbon neutrality within the UC campuses (“Energy Management”). A non-carbon producing, alternative source of energy is needed to help reach this goal. By following the first solution from Bending the Curve, the use of electric producing algae can replace the consumption of methane gas. Using electric producing algae not only creates a carbon neutral way to produce energy, but it also removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and purifies waste water (Gajda et al.). …show more content…

Another problem that electric producing algae has is that it is still relatively expensive compared to other sources of energy like solar. This process is currently using expensive catalyst like platinum, to decrease price, a cheaper alternative is required (Lobato et al.). These three problems turn people away from investing in electric producing algae because there are many alternatives that can have better efficiency. However, with more efficient algae, it can provide more than just energy. Compare to other sources of alternative energy, electric producing algae has the most benefits of them all. If UCSD is completely dependent on electric producing algae, it would stop two million tons of carbon per year per acre from polluting the atmosphere (Lane, “Where are we with algae biofuel?”). Although other sources of renewable energy would be able to do this, algae would be better in the long run. Through photosynthesis, oxygen is created in exchange of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This will help lower the overall concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because algae can act as a sink for carbon in the atmosphere. This process would result in a net negative production of carbon dioxide. Not only algae can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it can also treat waste water. Algae feeds off from the nutrient in the waste water and in exchange, human

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