We cook it for 30 minutes to an hour and we get a crude bio-oil." "We heat it to about 300 degrees and keep the water at high enough pressure to keep it liquid as opposed to steam. That simplifies the process and clears big hurdles to commercial scale production of algal fuels.
The method Savage and his colleagues are exploring uses less oily types of algae and eliminates the need to dry the algae. They break down more easily than other biofuel feedstocks because their cell walls aren't as tough.Īlgal fuel typically requires cultivating specific species of algae, drying it and extracting its oil. Microalgae are, as the name suggests, microscopic algae. "Just like when you are using a pressure cooker at home, their algae pressure cooker needs to be heated and if they are using electricity or natural gas to heat the system there will be carbon emissions that lead to climate change," said David Friedman, research director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There also are questions about the carbon-reduction benefits because obviously it requires energy to produce and process the fuel. Although algal biofuels are feasible, there is some concern about the quality of the refined product and its performance in cold temperatures, said Spencer Quong, an automotive engineer and alt-fuels expert with Quong and Associates.
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