The Nashville Tech Story (7/2/2009)
With fuel prices rising each year, inventors are continually trying to find alternative fuels and fuel sources. Ethanol is the most talked about fuel source and is already being incorporated into the current fuel mixtures. Vegetable oil was another option and some environmentalists have also gone as far as to take the leftover vegetable oil from Asian restaurants. One of the obvious sources is coal, but production would be expensive and could be harmful to the environment. However, a source that many of us have never heard of is the use of algae.
Algae BioFuel placed in a closed water system, may be the best alternative we have available to us. There are two means of algae production that are heading to mass production. A closed water system that is fed by the sun and CO2 coming out of smoke stacks, such as those at power plants. Or an open water system that relies solely on the sun and requires large acreage farms to house the open ponds. Creating Algae BioFuels using a closed water system would require less acreage, zero food crops and zero mining to produce.
There are plenty of power plants worldwide with smoke stacks able to feed the Algae that can be converted into BioFuel. If we want to improve the air and make a difference in the environment, then converting algae to BioFuel looks to be the best alternative.
