The Effects Of Algae Biofuels On The United States

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)

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

That fuel source is called corn-ethanol, and a majority of people can see the main ingredient, which is, corn in America 's farm fields. Corn is grown annually and it does not take millions of years to reproduce. Oil is a fuel source that takes millions of years to reproduce. A biofuel is the process of taking any once living plant and abstracting the plant 's energy to make a fuel. People in America are supporting Biofuels, including corn-ethanol because it does not require oil. It also reduces green house gasses, which makes it better for the environment (Cassman 59). The common view of ethanol is that it is just a research project to make the environmentalists happy but that is not true. It has the potential to keep America 's economy rolling, supply a fuel source, and still feed livestock with its byproducts. The key to success as a country is to use what we already have an abundance of in this country. The evidence is all there for this argument many Americans just need to become educated about this topic. The main

The United States currently has the realistic capability of meeting roughly 64 percent of its gas demand with alternative fuels. This plan of alternative fuels relies mostly on BioDiesel from algae, while also utilizing ethanol from corn. As for the other 36 percent of our demand, we can rely on our own crude oil production by utilizing natural gas (CNG). A great attribute of all of these fuel sources is that they can be distributed

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.

Several experimenters have found the CO2 from a smokestack works well for growing algae. To be economical, some experts think that algae farming for biofuels will have to be done as part of cogeneration, where it can make use of waste heat, and help soak up pollution.

The article explains how biofuels isn’t something that is just discovered, hence, the algae biofuel has been put in a place of fossil fuel today. There have be a lot of companies as well as government agencies that are finding several ways in reducing the cost of producing algae biofuel to make profit from the source of fuel.

Although dredging can be expensive, this price can stop algal blooms before they occur. Some mitigation measures could also be taken to stop HAB’s these include; physical removal of the plant and adding algaecides to the water and changing the aquatic food web in the lake or pond. Flocculation, coagulation, sedimentation and filtration are basic ways to make our drinking water clean and free of toxins but although they work most filtration and cleaning techniques have problems. The issue that we need to research and find new ways to prevent the algae from forming in the first place. This is because although there are ways of fixing it, it does not get the job entirely done. ("Control And

(1) “The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) requires use of 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuels in the U.S. by 2022. Of that quantity, 16 billion gallons must be cellulosic biofuels. Ethanol from corn is capped at 15 billion gallons.”   http://www.energy.gov/news/archives/documents/Myths_and_Facts.pdf ibid.

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

Algae biofuel production need four steps: strain isolation, algae cultivation, oil extraction and inter-esterification for final product. Use Chlorella as an example, high-quality strains need to be obtained first. Ideally, these strain should have high CO2 absorption rate, fast growth rate with good oil-production efficient. Instead of autotrophic and heterotrophic type, researchers are more interested in mixing them up so that algae can utilise photosynthesis energy in daytime and keep metabolism rate and propagation over night by supplied organic carbon sources, such as glucose. The

In the world of global warming, all kinds of pollution and fuel shortages going on, renewable and clean/ green energy is increasingly the ideal solution of energy related problems we have to solve one way or another. Biofuel is one of the mainstream and highly supported solutions nowadays, an idea to make renewable fuel by living organisms such as fiber, corn, vegetable oil or sugar cane. Unlike nonrenewable fossil fuels over extracted by people causing various environmental problems like generating a considerable amount greenhouse gas, current technology already lets renewable fuel like biofuels to shrink a certain amount of greenhouse gas production, making it a more ‘clean’ source of energy.

There are many different varieties of algae. It can also grow in numerous colors and forms and can be found everywhere on the planet. Many people believe algae is limited to the green film seen on ponds or washed up on beaches, however, that is just a very small portion of what algae is (Sterner, 2013). One of these algae species, and the topic of this experiment, is Chlorella vulgaris. This is a freshwater alga which can be used in wastewater treatment (Gonzales and Bashan, 2000). A significant discussion regarding algae is on biofuels. This fuel is produced from microalgae. The algal oil is harvested from the fatty acids produced by the algae as a product of photosynthesis. Algal lipids have a high saturation making them a suitable feedstock for biodiesel. This biodiesel, since oil based, can be substituted for petroleum once the technology is fully capable of production. This fuel is also eco-friendly, and has been tested non-toxic to the environment. Currently, most biofuel in the United States is produced from soybeans, but the push to algae biodiesel is on the rise. This is attributed to the problem of arable land needed by soybeans and other current biofuel producers. Algae have the unique ability to grow in non-favorable conditions, like brackish water, making it a favorable alternative. Also, algae have a very short harvesting life and are capable of allowing multiple harvests year-round unlike other crops. Finally, the cost associated with harvesting and

There are two potential sources for CH4 emissions in the algae pathway, the AD process and biogas clean-up. Based on a literature review (Liebertrau, et al., 2010; Flesch, et al., 2011), we assume a total fugitive CH4 loss of 2% for this pathway. Biogas flaring efficiency was observed to be less than usually expected, averaging 81% CH4 combustion in the flare with a range of 48% to 99%. This range is usually assumed to be 90% to 95%. However, the N2O emission from the N-containing sludge was ignored because chemical fertilizers replaced by the biogas residue are associated with the same issue.

Production of Neutral lipid from algae Basanti L. and Gautieri P., 2014 states that the source of oil from algae biomass are lipids, these are classified as fatty acids and fatty acids derivatives, like Triacylglycerol’s, Wax esters, Phospholipids, phosphoglycerides and sphingomyelin, Isoprenoids (based on isoprene structure).The type of algal lipids that are convertible to biodiesel is the neutral type like triglycerides cholesterol though other types are like galactolipids among others are also produced. The synthesis of lipids in algae is achieved through three mechanisms and these include enzyme-mediated using pyruvate Elyse, acetyl coenzyme A and desaturation or elongation of unsaturated lipids The availability of catalysts in algae