{"id":1220,"date":"2009-09-25T04:34:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-25T04:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oilgae.com\/blog\/?p=1220"},"modified":"2009-09-25T04:34:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-25T04:34:00","slug":"virginia-commonwealth-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/virginia-commonwealth-university.html","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Commonwealth University Studies Algae"},"content":{"rendered":"

You are at: Oilgae Blog<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

VCU’s department of biology began a study using algae as biofuel this summer. The project received $40,000 in funding from the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, as well as $20,000 from VCU. VCU’s study began this summer and is expected to be completed by June 2010.<\/p>\n

Professor Paul Bukaveckas, who specializes in algae and holds a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology, is the primary investigator of the VCU study. Bukaveckas explained why algae biofuel is preferred over ethanol.<\/p>\n

Amber Taylor, a bioinformatics and geonomics major with a minor in environmental studies, conducted her own research and discovered various algae types secrete different materials to produce various biofuels. Understanding the operations of algae is important, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

“It is found that certain algae, when given more carbon dioxide, yield larger amounts of oil,” Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Algal Farms, a local company, has expressed interest in collaborating with VCU in future studies. The company, founded in 2008, is exploring dried algae as a substitute for use in coal power plants, said Director of Operations Gary Ford. Because algae absorbs carbon dioxide, Ford said that it is considered carbon neutral, or carbon negative.<\/p>\n

“Emissions (with algae) are a lot cleaner than what you’d get with other fuel sources,” Ford said. According to Ford, they are also testing algae for use in pellet stoves.<\/p>\n

See more here<\/a><\/p>\n

By the way, have you subscribed to the Oilgae Blog?<\/a>; How about joining the Oilgae mailing list?<\/a>; and our forum to discuss on with others<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You are at: Oilgae Blog. VCU’s department of biology began a study using algae as biofuel this summer. The project received $40,000 in funding from the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, as well as $20,000 from VCU. VCU’s study began this summer and is expected to be completed by June 2010. Professor Paul Bukaveckas, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algae-fuel-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}