As energy prices continue to increase and our energy supplies begin to dry up, using biofuels will become a necessity. What exactly is a biofuel? Biofuel is defined as a type of fuel whose energy is made from the process of carbon fixation. Carbon fixation is the reduction of inorganic carbon (carbon dioxide) to organic carbon by living organism. Ethanol is one of the most common biofuels and it is made from plants.
Microbes like yeast are able to break down the edible part of a plant into glucose sugar through fermentation. This produces ethanol. In my fermentation project, with Future Science Leaders, naturally occurring yeast on the pinot noir grapes, were responsible for the production of the biofuel. They ate and ate and ate all the sugar they could which creates fermentation. Carbon dioxide, the unwanted inorganic carbon, was released through a bung.
It’s amazing that microbes like yeast are able to produce biofuel but the process is not very easy. It’s takes plenty of time (our fermentation took a month), it’s expensive on a large scale, and there are also ethical issues. We must consider whether or not it is ethical to grow food just to produce energy while people in other countries are starving. In addition, would cutting down forests to grow food be a fair choice just to produce biofuel? There are many issues with the production of biofuel with edible plants and yeast.
For these reasons and others, scientists have begun to consider using cellulose to produce biofuel, particularly alga. Cellulose cannot be digested by humans so in essence, it is somewhat of a plant waste product. Scientists are currently looking for a microbe that is able to break down cellulose because yeast cannot do the job. However, they have some breakthroughs and many scientists are passionately are the hunt so it may not be long until alga biofuel is possible. More than half of alga’s composition, by weight, is lipid oil!
Concluding, there are many very intriguing possibilities for alga biofuel and biofuel research in general! Major breakthroughs may be as simple as finding the correct microbe. However, this is much easier said than done!
You can also see this post on the Future Science Leaders site.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/algae-biodiesel.htm