Third generation biofuels - Algae fuel

Algae fuel, also called oilgae or third generation biofuel, is a biofuel from algae. Algae are low-input, high-yield feedstocks to produce biofuels. Based on laboratory experiments, it is claimed that algae can produce up to 30 times more energy per acre than land crops such as soybeans, but these yields have yet to be produced commercially. With the higher prices of fossil fuels (petroleum), there is much interest in algaculture (farming algae). One advantage of many biofuels over most other fuel types is that they are biodegradable, and so relatively harmless to the environment if spilled. Algae fuel still has its difficulties though, for instance to produce algae fuels it must be mixed uniformly, which, if done by agitation, could affect biomass growth.

The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require only 15,000 square miles (38,849 square kilometers), which is roughly the size of Maryland,^[36] or less than one seventh the amount of land devoted to corn in 2000.

Algae, such as Botryococcus braunii and Chlorella vulgaris are relatively easy to grow, but the algal oil is hard to extract. There are several approaches, some of which work better than others. Macroalgae (seaweed) also have a great potential for bioethanol and biogas production.

Ethanol from living algae

Most biofuel production comes from harvesting organic matter and then converting it to fuel but an alternative approach relies on the fact that some algae naturally produce ethanol and this can be collected without killing the algae. The ethanol evaporates and then can be condensed and collected. The company Algenol is trying to commercialize this process.

Green fuels

However, if biocatalytic cracking and traditional fractional distillation are used to process properly prepared algal biomass i.e. biocrude, then as a result we receive the following distillates: jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, etc. Hence, we may call them third generation or green fuels.