In 1978, President Jimmy Carter launched a program called the Aquatic Species Program (United States).  It was funded until 1996 by the United States Department of Energy and for two decades was aimed at looking into the production of energy using algae.  Later, the focus was moved to that of producing biodiesel using algae.  One of the main goals was to research the use of algae in the sequestration of carbon dioxide.  The program studied more than 3000 types of algae and then took the best of those and tried to increase lipid production (United States).  When the program was shut down, the Department of Energy compiled a report that was published in 1998 with all of the results of their research.  The conclusion: unless oil prices rose to twice that of the prices in 1998, it would not be cost effective (United States).  It should be noted that oil prices in October 2006 were three times that of the prices in 1998 in constant dollars.  However, the greatest flaw of the research was their use of an open pond system.  The other growing solutions will be discussed on the next page.

 

 

Biofuels based on large crops and other plants have recently come under heavy fire because of controversy over the fact that they would take up arable land and limit food production.

"First-generation biofuels made from corn, soybeans, sunflower seeds and rapeseed were rejected because they use valuable agriculture land and water, can result in deforestation in developing countries and the demand for them has driven up food prices and caused scattered food shortages." (Blumenthal).

Valcent Products Inc. has claimed that their technology "uses only 5% of the water required by conventional field crops and creates yields ten to twenty times greater than conventional crops in an urban environment." (Valcent Products Inc.).

Valcent also states that ethanol-producing corn has a yield of a mere 18 gallons per acre per year.  The next highest producer is palm, which is capable of 700 gallons per acre per year.  However, many researchers and producers estimate that algae can produce up to 150,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year.  This means that if one tenth of the state of New Mexico (all non-arable land) were used as algae farm land, they would be able to satisfy ALL of America's energy needs (Algae Bioreactor Video).

 





In the video at right, Montana State University reasearchers discuss recent discoveries in the production of biodiesel using the oils produced by algae.

 

  Previous Page                                                                                                                                                            Next Page