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Concept
Algae fuel
Summary
Algae fuel, algal biofuel, or algal oil is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels that uses algae as its source of energy-rich oils. Also, algae fuels are an alternative to commonly known biofuel sources, such as corn and sugarcane. When made from seaweed (macroalgae) it can be known as seaweed fuel or seaweed oil.
In December 2022, ExxonMobil, the last large oil company to invest in algae biofuels, ended its research funding.
In 1942 Harder and Von Witsch were the first to propose that microalgae be grown as a source of lipids for food or fuel. Following World War II, research began in the US, Germany, Japan, England, and Israel on culturing techniques and engineering systems for growing microalgae on larger scales, particularly species in the genus Chlorella. Meanwhile, H. G. Aach showed that Chlorella pyrenoidosa could be induced via nitrogen starvation to accumulate as much as 70% of its dry weight as lipids. Since the need for alternative transportation fuel had subsided after World War II, research at this time focused on culturing algae as a food source or, in some cases, for wastewater treatment.
Interest in the application of algae for biofuels was rekindled during the oil embargo and oil price surges of the 1970s, leading the US Department of Energy to initiate the Aquatic Species Program in 1978. The Aquatic Species Program spent $25 million over 18 years with the goal of developing liquid transportation fuel from algae that would be price competitive with petroleum-derived fuels. The research program focused on the cultivation of microalgae in open outdoor ponds, systems which are low in cost but vulnerable to environmental disturbances like temperature swings and biological invasions. 3,000 algal strains were collected from around the country and screened for desirable properties such as high productivity, lipid content, and thermal tolerance, and the most promising strains were included in the SERI microalgae collection at the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) in Golden, Colorado and used for further research.
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