S.+Griffin+Biodiesel+from+Algae

**__Biodisel from Algae__**

 The world is going to hell in a hand-basket. The economy is falling, war is raging across the middle east, Korea has the U.N by the throat with nuclear weapons. But maybe the biggest problem thats seeing the least amount of attention is global warming and the quickly depleting sources of fossil fuels. The warming of the globe is an effect of man's over dependence on fossil fuels through this year. This usage in the U.S alone had grown exponentially over the years. In 1960 the U.S used 57,880 million gallons of fuel annually. This number has skyrocketed to 179,100 million gallons of fuel annually in 2005 and that has continued to climb over the last few years. This huge use of fossil fuels has put serious strain on the Earth with clear cutting of forests the Earth doesn't have the ability to filter a good portion of the CO2 and green house gases released into the atmosphere from use of these fossil fuels. This is beginning to cause climate change around the world. While living in a warmer earth overall may sound good on paper, in practice global warming doesn't work in that way. Global warming while making some areas of the world warmer is also making some areas colder and redistributing the earths small percentage of fresh water. This is the reason Darfur is the war torn area that it is today. Global warming isn't going away anytime soon but with alternative fuel sources maybe the world can pull it together and at least reduce the damage of global warming.



Biodiesel is one way to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. biodiesel is a renewable energy source that is in use is similar to regular No.2 diesel used in trucks now. The difference is while No. 2 diesel is petroleum based biodiesel is based on transcertified oils such as vegetable oil or seed oil. The biggest problems with biodiesel right now are its higher ignition temperature, lower MPG ratio compared to normal diesel, and the fact that not enough of the products that can be used in biodiesel creation can be grown in a country to completely phase out normal diesel. On estimate it would take about the entirety of the United States to cover the amount of land needed to completely phase petrodiesel out in the U.S.This of course makes the idea of using biodiesel as an alternative fuel source a pipe dream. Or is it?

Recent advances in the study of biodisel have revealed a product that could potentially give this pipe dream a fighting chance. Algae is one the Earth's most basic plants consisting of almost 50% oil in some strains. Has the ability to grow in almost all climates from marine to desert, and requires little to grow and potential could be grown through the use of already in use power plants as well as specialized growing areas. It also would take far less land mass to completely phase out fossil fuels in countries making it a viable solution for smaller European countries as well as large countries such as the U.S.



For algae to grow it requires three components sunlight, moisture, and CO2. These are some of the most abunadant things on earth and are in no short supply and as far as scientists can see won't be for a long time. The key factor in growing algae is temperature and the amount of CO2 the warmer the temperature and the higher the CO2 levels in the growing area the faster the algae grows. Theres alot of potential for the growth of the algae in that it can be grown using both special areas known as photobioreactors which are specialized for the production of algae for use in biodiesel, as well as in special areas in which the emissions from current poweplants emissions can be pumped. This would both increase growth rate of the algae but reduce the emissions of power plants helping the environment. The algae would absorb the CO2 in the emission and feed on and produce clean air through photosynthesis and grown a bit more making it that much larger and create that much more biodiesel.



The biodiesel is created by harvesting the algae and separating the plant components from the oil first and then through a process called trancertification the oils FFA's (or free fatty acids) are neutralized and the glycerin in the oil is removed leaving an alchol ester. In algae oil transcertification sodium ethanolate is used as a catalyst and reacted with the algae oil. This results in the creation of biodiesel, glycerol and sodium ethanolate. The products are then mixed with ether and salt water and mixed well. This separates the products into layers and the layer of ether and biodisel is separated from the rest. The biodiesel is then separated from the ether by use of a vaporizer and a high vacuum. The ether vaporizes before the biodiesel leaving the biodiesel ready for use.

This technique is a new and thus is still in infancy so it hasn't been fully adopted by the scientific community but its impact is growing. As now one company offers a commercially available source for photobioreacters, but if predictions are correct the U.S. could completely lose the dependence on fossil fuels with a landmass about the size of Maryland. While thats still a lot of land who can deny that it would be a small price to pay to help preserve our planet as long as possible. Overall biodiesel from algae is set to become a huge success but due to its infant state and the fact the process hasn't been perfected it still hasn't reached that goal, but with the help of out generation it very well could become the next super product the world relies so heavily on.