Various Benefits and Advantages of Algae Farming
Due to the increase on oil prices, food crisis and competition on the demand of foods and biofuel, this led to the interest of algae farming for making vegetable oil, biodiesel, biogasoline, bioethanol as well as other biofuels that is into the use of land which are found not suitable for agriculture. Algae actually have the potential in providing a good source of biodiesel, hydrogen and ethanol fuels. Microalgae is actually a fast growing photosynthesizing organism that is capable of completing its whole growing cycle for every few days. There is in fact about 50% on the weight of algae that’s comprised of oil than oil palm only having about 20% of its weight in oil.
Algae farming or phytoplankton farm is considered to be a good route when it comes to making vegetable oils as well as other kinds of biofuels. Microalgae is a one-celle, photosynthetic microorganism which is in fact abundant in various kinds of marine environments everywhere on earth. The potential of algae production commercially is expected to be grown in translucent tubes or in containers that are known as photo bioreactors or through open ocean algae bloom harvesting. Some other advantages includes processing of algae biomass through gasification in creating syngas, using waste streams from municipalities as water sources, growing carbohydrate rich algae strains for the purpose of cellulosic ethanol and also for carbon capture from smokestacks to help increase the growth rate of the algae.
Algae actually have certain qualities in them which makes it an attractive option for the production of biodiesel. Unlike the corn-based biodiesel that competes with food crops for land resources, the production methods of algae like in algae ponds or photo bioreactors is able to complement than compete with the other biomass-based fuel options. Compared with the other forms of biodiesel crops, algae actually does not need too much input of carbon intensive fertilizers. You could actually find some algae species which is grown in waters with high amounts of salt, which means that this is not a problem on freshwater supplies.
There are actually some companies and government agencies who funds such effort in order to reduce the capital and operating costs and in making the algae fuel production viable commercially. Based on a recent study, genetic engineering could help improve the fuel efficiency of algae because algae could be modified in building short carbon chains rather than long chains of carbohydrates.
There are some companies that uses chemically-induced mutations to create an algae which is suitable for use as a crop. There are some commercial interests to the large-scale algal-cultivation systems who wish to connect with existing infrastructures like coal power plants, cement factories or perhaps on sewage treatment facilities. Visit this link or homepage to learn more info. about where to buy algae or about yellow tang.