One of probably the most discussed renewable fuel sources in the previous few years has been algae biofuels. With all the world-wide efforts to attempt to reduce our reliance on non-renewable fuels, algal biofuels have been showing potential on being able to scale for the quantities of production to inexpensively replace our dependence on conventional oil sources. Beyond the benefits of currently being renewable, algal biofuels have also shown that they're considerably far better for the environment in the reduced levels of Carbon Dioxide released during their use. Bio-diesel from algae is one of the alternative fuel sources currently being explored for potential widespread use. To comprehend this we need to first answer the question of what's biofuel?

What Does Biofuel Consist Of?

Biofuels could be in different forms to including liquid, gas, or solid materials. Biofuels are generally made from any biological carbon-based substances, with corn and soy beans being the most common crops utilized for biodiesel manufacturing. Using these crops requires the land normally used to develop food we eat. As a result, the renewable fuels industry has been investing time and effort into refining the process to remove bio-fuel from algal mass as a third generation bio-fuel.

Algae Fuel Advantages

Algae will develop at 50 to a hundred times faster than corn or soy, and don't need freshwater or farm land to be developed. Algae may be grown in non potable water or suspended containers located exactly where the land can not be used to grow food. The conventional barriers to successful use of algae as a biodiesel have been the relative low expense of oil when compared to the cost of extracting the biofuel from algae, however, with enhanced technology and increased crude oil costs this distance has decreased over the past couple of years.

When developed in closed photo bio-reactor systems, the algae growth process could be controlled resulting in greater yields and improve biodiesel manufacturing. Another advantage of the algae development method is the algae pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and replaces it with oxygen. This makes bio-diesel algae farms more attractive to place near manufacturing plants that produce excessive amounts of carbon dioxide to help decrease pollution but also benefit the algae grower.

Algae biodiesel has the potential to replace all crude oil world-wide. If algae farms can achieve their potential, then this could be completed 100 million acres in contrast it would take exponentially much more land to achieve the exact same effect with conventional biofuel crops.

How Is Algal Oil Removed from Algae?

Extracting the oil from algae biomass has been the major expense barrier for the growth of algae biodiesel into the industry. Once the algae are harvested, the oils are then extracted through the algae cells. The most rudimentary method to do this is to use an oil press which is similar to how an palm oil press functions. The oil press has roughly a 75 % extraction rate. Another method used to extract the oil is the hexane solvent extraction. This method results in approximately a 95 percent extraction rate of the oil from the algae.

The third technique employed is the supercritical fluids approach which can get up to 100 percent of the oil out of the algae. In this approach, carbon dioxide is used to act as the supercritical fluid. The algal biomass is pressurized and heated to alter it into a fluid and gaseous state. Then, the carbon dioxide is mixed with the algae which turns it almost entirely into oil. This method needs a significant investment in equipment and incurs considerable expense. Once the algae oil is extracted, it is then refined utilizing the transesterification method where sodium hydroxide is mixed with methanol to produce biofuel from algae biomass.

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