A photo from open sources
Engineers from the Northwest Energy Division US national labs have developed a way to turn algae in crude oil in less than an hour – in nature this The process takes millions of years. This oil can then be converted to full-fledged gasoline, on which they work cars.
The advantages of the new technology are obvious. Algae is one of the most numerous life forms on our planet, so they are an ideal candidate for conversion to biofuels. In addition, their energy density per unit volume is extremely high. For example, to replace all US oil with fuel from algae, you need a farm that takes only 0.42 percent of the country. For comparison – to grow enough soy to replace oil with biodiesel, you will need half of the territory of the United States.
Algae fuel is not a new idea, but for scientists for the first time managed to get it so easy and fast. “That’s not a lot resembles autoclaving, only temperature and pressure, which we use is much higher, “says the head Douglas Elliot Research Team. “In fact, we reproduce the natural process of converting algae into oil, which takes millions of years in nature. We just do it much, much faster. ”
And this magic gasoline can be at gas stations much earlier than one might have guessed. Energy Division US National Laboratory has already entered into a partnership agreement with Genifuel to work on the commercialization of the project and turning a new fuel into a competitive product.
USA
