Need A New Energy Source? Try Algae!

Creating new sources of energy has been on of the main focuses of the world today. Fossil fuels are great, but they are in limited supply. Fossil fuels are used because they are compressed carbon atoms that can be utilized, and gives off carbon dioxide. There are various things such as water, and air that is rather plentiful that we could use instead, but research is still being done in order to figure out how to best use these items to create energy. Wind energy has been harnessed fairly well with giant turbines that can convert the wind into usable energy. Also, corn is being used as an alternative energy source. In regards to the fossil fuels, instead of going deep with the earth, and pulling out suppressed carbon dioxide particles from way down there, we could use the carbon dioxide already present in our atmosphere.

Many people know that plants are essential to our survival. We eat plants in order to help keep us alive, but plants also play an important role in the life cycle of the planet. We breathe in oxygen, and give off carbon dioxide, but plants take in carbon dioxide, and give off oxygen. What many people do not realize is that plants, using a process called photosynthesis, give off not just oxygen, but oil, and water as well - not as much as you would collect in several rain water barrels, but still comparable to how much you could collect through normal rain harvesting. Right now, we mainly grow corn for this process since we have so much of it, and its easy to grow. However, according to the video below, a better solution would be to use algae since it is very fast growing, and it has a higher oil content than that of corn. The video demonstrates an algae bioreactor created out of water bottles (roughly about 52 bottles). Unfortunately the video doesn't detail how much oil he is able to produce from the set up that he has created, but this is still a step in the right direction. It probably would be possible to use rain barrels to help get water to the water bottles in a bioreactor such as this, but I haven't come across a video detailing how to do that as of yet.



 

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