Adkins.Baldasinni.Spring2009.MMA.EnergyandWater

Biodiesel Generation From Algae 1. The problem at hand is that our reliance upon fossil fuels is devastating the climate and that our supply of fossil fuels is depleting on the earth. The worlds supply of fresh water is also diminishing faster than it can be replenished. 2. The driving force of this problem is caused by humans inability to control worldwide pollution and our burning of fossil fuels. Also, we have no way of moderating how much fresh water we cpnsume. In order to moderate how much we use, we have to change the amount we supply. 3. People are making an effort to live in a more socially concious manner, including starting to use reusable woven cotton bags instead of plastic bags because the plastic bags are made from petroleum products. Also, we are switching to hybrid cars to cut down on Carbon Dioxide emissions and the amount of fossil fuels used. Many company's are starting to make "green products", which means that their impact on the surrounding environment is a lot smaller. Another way we are turning environmentally friendly is by gas stations adding ten percent of ethanol to gasoline in order to cut down the amount of fossil fuel we use. 4. One of the ways people are combating the amount of fossil fuels consumed is by generating biodiesel from algae which is a cleaner and more natural source of energy compared to places like coal mines or oil refineries. 5. Biodiesel from algae production is a very tedious practice. First, matured algae is pumped into an extraction tank, but before it reaches the tank it is hit with low voltage electricity and Carbon Dioxide. The electricity causes quantam fracturing which extracts the oil from the algae cells. The extraction tank allows the processed cells to float to the top while the unprocessed cells float to the bottom. The processed cultures are then put into the gravity clarifier where the oil is extracted although the water is pumped to the biosector. The biomass settles to the bottom and is pumped to the holding tank. The unprocessed cultures are sent to a recirculating line to go back through the electromagnetic fields into the extraction tank to go through the process again. 7. Biodiesel generation of algae does not produce water but does save us from using the water. Algea can also become the main componant for feeding livestock or other various animals of the world, due to the fact that it is a very compact crop. This leads to conserving food but using small amounts of water for the algea to grow, a beneficial tradeoff. 8. There are numerous benefits to generating biodiesel from algae. The byproducts from this reaction are distilled water, vegetable oil and biomass, without the harmful greenhouse gases released through fossil fuels. Strip mining and offshore drilling would become things of the past, since we wouldn't need to impact the enviornment to develop fuels. The biodiesel field would rapidly expand, supplying many new jobs and stimulating the economy. 9. Critics would discuss how enviornmentally friendly biodiesel generation is, referring to its natural scource and low amount of harmful byproducts. They would laud the fact that it generates pure, distilled water, since many third-world countries are currently struggling to find clean drinking water. However, some critics would complain about how the ponds the algae is grown in need to be strictly controlled, since the temperatures, pH and carbon dioxide levels can't fluctuate without destroying the healthy, mature algae. They would also complain about how very few tests have actually been conducted, so there really is no viable data on mileage or emissions. 11. Biodiesel generation of algae is still relatively new and untested. Therefore, most of the worlds fuel and energy sources revolve around alternative supplies that we have been using for many years. For example, fossil fuels remain the dominate supply. 15. As of now creating the algea is not one of the more important issues, it is the conversion of algea into fuel. To make the algea on a larger scale would take a large amount of land that would simply be dedicated to small or large plots of shallow ponds for the algea to grow and thrive on. The process of turning the algea into the fuel itself would be on a much higher scale of dedication and attention, and alot of funding for the facilities that would create the fuel. 16. This technology is not used very much due to the fact that it is very costly, and since the procedure to turn algea into biodiesel costs alot of money, there is not alot of funding. "Algae seems to be the perfect biofuel, yet at a projected cost of $10 a gallon it's a bit prohibitive," said Dr. Sudeep Vaswani at a Biodiesel rewiew. Since there is not alot of funding twards this costly event, and since the US is currently in a recesion, many compaines or people are not willing to donate the kind of money that it would need to properly test and complete the process to make this biodiesel effective in the world.

This page was created by Jordan Adkins, Zac Baldassini and Joe Carlson Period 2 8:55