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Nature gave
us oil from algae; perhaps we should try Nature’s
way again
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from Algae Oil > Algae Biodiesel Research
Oilgae Highlights
Notes:
- We’d like to regularly add more useful content and web
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Biodiesel production from algae, do let us know by sending a note to narsi@esource.in . Many thanks for
your patience.
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at the end of this page for more details.
See also: For all aspects of Biodiesel
production, uses, research and case studies, please refer to our Biodiesel Section
@ Oilgae Energy Portal
! Are you an
inventor or equipment producer for fuel from algae, or part of a company that
is involved in the algal fuel efforts? Please see this section in order
that you can help us list your company or efforts @ Oilgae
Algae Biodiesel Research
- Algae Production in Open Ocean
Environments
- Many countries have limited land for farming or growing
oil crops, or for that matter algae, but have much larger ocean areas.
So a natural question that arises is: how can algae be cultivated in
ocean environments for biodiesel. Most research so far into algae-culture
have concentrated on inland & controlled sites.
- To
get high oil yields per acre, the environment needs to controlled to a
significant extent in order to keep other species from coming in and
taking over. It will be extremely difficult in open, uncontrolled
environments to keep lower, undesirable strains of algae from taking
over high oil algae, which aren't particularly competitive in such open
environments. Also to be considered are problems such as how to harvest
in an open ocean, etc. At this stage of research hence, harvesting
specific strains of algae in open ocean environments appears to be a
considerably difficult matter.
- Some recent studies have been directed at investigating
the feasibility of using anaerobic digestion as a technique to recover
solar energy embodied in the excessive algal biomass production as a replacement
fuel. The three major issues restricting the economic and technical
feasibility of anaerobic fermentation of algal sludge are: 1) The low
energy density of the dewatered sludge as obtained from algal removal
techniques, 2) Green algal sludge is relatively resistant to anaerobic
biodegradation 3) The high nitrogen content of algal biomass leading to
ammonia toxicity in the anaerobic digester environment
- In addition, recent techniques have been developed for
the large scale production of marine micro-algae under heterotrophic
growth conditions, by utilizing organic carbon instead of light as an
energy source. Heterotrophic algal cultures can attain up to 1,000 times
higher densities than photoautotrophic cultures and can be preserved by
spray-drying. For more inputs on heterotrophic algea in the context of
biodiesel, see: Replacement
Diets for Live Algae – from FAO & Biofuels
Production from Microalgae after Heterotrophic Growth (PDF)
Key Questions on which
On-going Research are Focussed
- Algal
Strains
- Algaculture
Systems - Open Ponds/Closed Systems/Others?
- How
can Algal Oil be Produced on a Large Scale to Achieve Benefits &
Economies from Scale?
- Research
on the Energy Cycle of the whole process - Total Energy inputs and
Outputs
Research Links
More articles & news on
algal oil / fuel research: Visitors may kindly have a look at the Oilgae Blog Directory for
relevant blog articles.
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from Algae Oil > Algae Cultivation
for Biodiesel, Biodiesel
Production from Algal Oil, Algae Biodiesel
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Biodiesel Research, Algae Biodiesel -
Companies
Energy & Alternative Energy
Energy
Portal – Discussed topics such as alternative & renewable energy,
peak oil, energy industry inventions & discoveries, and more.
Check out the latest inventions and breakthroughs
in energy & alternative energy, on the following topics @ NewNergy Blog
Add Links/Submit Links: Do you have a web resource that belongs to here? If you have a
web site that you wish to include in this page, do let us know the details by
sending a note about your URL to [narsi]@[esource].[in] to add URL (pl remove
the [ ] to get my email address!). We’ll quickly review the web site, and if
found relevant, add it to the database. Thanks!
Oilgae.com content is available under
GNU Free Documentation License: All content at
Oilgae.com is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation (GFDL). Put simply,
under this license, anyone is free to copy & use any amount of content
@ Oilgae.com, make changes to it and use it in any way they wish, as long
as they also allow the same rights to anyone else for this content. To those
who wish to use content from Oilgae.com, our only request is that they
acknowledge the source and provide a link back to Oilgae.com. Put not so
simply, see the Oilgae.com GNU Free Documentation
License .
Some interesting resources
- Plant Oils Database
– provides resources and links for over 200 different plant oils and
related plant extracts
- BDPedia – The
Biodiesel WWW Encyclopedia
Agriculture Directories
About Oilgae - Oilgae - Oil & Biodiesel from Algae
has a focus on biodiesel production from algae while also discussing alternative
energy in general. Algae present an exciting possibility as a feedstock for
biodiesel, and when you realise that oil was originally formed from algae
- among others - you think "Hey! Why not oil again from algae!"
To facilitate exploration of oil production from algea as well as exploration
of other alternative energy avenues, Oilgae provides web links, directory,
and related resources for algae-based biofuels / biodiesel along with inputs
on new inventions, discoveries & breakthroughs in other alternative
energy domains such as solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, hydrogen
& fuel cells, gravitational, geothemal, human-powered, ocean & wave /
tidal energy. We hope Oilgae proves to be useful as a research information
& inputs resources, and as a source of news & info for algea business
& trade of algal oil, algal fuels & new alternative energy products -
specially with regard to new feedstock / feedstocks, production processes
and uses, and market info such as price / prices, data & statistics
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