Algae roadblocks for the biofuel industry

Algae is touted regularly in biofuel news as being the most likely replacement for fossil fuels, but Daniel Geller of the University of Georgia recently explained that there are several roadblocks to overcome in order to make the source viable for production.

The greatest challenge to a sustainable future for algae as a biofuel is that its costs a great deal to break down the cell wall of the miniscule aquatic organism to access the oil found inside. Furthermore, of the hundreds of thousands of algae species, there are only a select few that have the chemical capabilities required in the biofuel industry.

There are certainly opportunities in this realm, but Geller comments that for every time they solve one engineering challenge, five others are created. He said: “Growth, harvest, extraction and conversion are all problems, and each stage adds money to the process…That’s a concern.”

Removing water is the first and most expensive engineering problem that needs to be overcome. Many conventional methods have been rendered redundant in the task, such as adding filters or boiling the water out. Geller believes artificial structures such as plastic show most promise in this area.

Posted by Claire Manning