A lot of it is theoretical and not based on actual production values. As a fermentation based fuel like ethanol, algae might be even worse due to the fact that there are unnecessary compounds that can't be digested by certain microorganisms. An easy analogy to fermentation is beer. Anaerobes are microorganisms that live in environments where there is no oxygen. Due to the lack of oxygen, they go through this pathway that creates lactic acid. The lactic acid is then used to ferment beer. In a similar process, ethanol is created. Even though a focus of research on algae is to use its outer wall (cellulose) as a fuel like ethanol, certain compounds such as lignin and arabinose cannot be digested by the anaerobic bacteria. Certain people have come up with the idea to genetically modify these microorganisms to be able to digest cellulose, but you might as well put your time into improving bacteria to digest ethanol.
Another possibility to process algae for fuel is biodiesel. Whereas ethanol uses sugar in order to produce fuel, biodiesel uses fat reserves in the plant to generate energy. Fat production has a huge tie in to photosynthesis and the compound G3P which is an intermediate compound that is important to sugar production and lipid production. The only problem is that we aren't sure if extraction of the lipid in biodiesel would be an easy task, if it will be efficient, and if it will not produce a lot of carbon dioxide in the process. The two main purposes for biofuel in my mind are as follows: 1. reduce green house pollution and 2. replace the diminishing quantities of fossil fuel. Algae looks like an excellent product, but we don't know this until it actually becomes a marketed product like ethanol. Actual success cannot always be ascertained from theoretical think tanks and laboratories. Ethanol is our first proof.
The paper was supposed to be a wet dream for people studying Biology. There are so many students who learn about glycolysis, the light cycle, and the Krebs / Calvin Cycle thinking its crap. But it is so awesome to understand that it all matters after reading literature and writing research reports. I always loved biochemical pathways. But I think I'm in the minority.
Another possibility to process algae for fuel is biodiesel. Whereas ethanol uses sugar in order to produce fuel, biodiesel uses fat reserves in the plant to generate energy. Fat production has a huge tie in to photosynthesis and the compound G3P which is an intermediate compound that is important to sugar production and lipid production. The only problem is that we aren't sure if extraction of the lipid in biodiesel would be an easy task, if it will be efficient, and if it will not produce a lot of carbon dioxide in the process. The two main purposes for biofuel in my mind are as follows: 1. reduce green house pollution and 2. replace the diminishing quantities of fossil fuel. Algae looks like an excellent product, but we don't know this until it actually becomes a marketed product like ethanol. Actual success cannot always be ascertained from theoretical think tanks and laboratories. Ethanol is our first proof.
The paper was supposed to be a wet dream for people studying Biology. There are so many students who learn about glycolysis, the light cycle, and the Krebs / Calvin Cycle thinking its crap. But it is so awesome to understand that it all matters after reading literature and writing research reports. I always loved biochemical pathways. But I think I'm in the minority.