Going Green part 5: In the Future, Algae Will Power Your Car!
If you remember my last post, I was freaking out about petroleum oil because it’s ubiquitous in our culture and it’s not great for the environment. So, I went digging for more information on Wikipedia (and I hoped it was all true). It turned out that smart people had discovered an alternative to petroleum and that alternative is plants.
Yes, plants. Those green things that stick out of the ground can be converted into biofuel. The most familiar form of biofuel is Ethanol, a type of alcohol. Across the world, it’s added to gasoline and used as fuel for automobiles. Here in America, most Ethanol is produced from corn, but other countries use other sources (Brazil uses sugar cane). Unfortunately, corn is not the most efficient crop to use as a source for ethanol, partially because only the kernels are used.
So, a lot of scientists are researching the production of ethanol and biofuel. While some researchers study using different sources–like using entire plants, not just the seeds—other researchers focus on different methods for creating biofuel. One of the hopeful sources of biofuel is algae.
Since algae grows quickly and in many different climates, it is an ideal source for biofuel. They have more biomass that can be converted into fuels. In addition, the algae can be used to create biodiesel, biobutanol, biogasoline, methane, and jet fuel. And that doesn’t even include the other chemicals that can be derived from oil.
It’s neat to think there is a good, sustainable alternative to petroleum. And while a lot of the technology to create biofuel is in its infant stage, it’s nice to think that the technology will only get better with time.
