Literature Review Blog 2: Production
of biofuels
Towards Sustainable
Production of Biofuels from Microalgae
As the world’s population
increases, the consumption of energy is sky rocketing. It is predicted that the
world energy demand will increase by more than 60% in 2030 (Trans et al, 2008).
With this exponential growth of energy demand, the world is looking into more
energy sustainable practices. Transportation is the one of the fastest growing
markets for primary energy consumption and the use of biofuels is the
cornerstone to change this dynamic. The ability of algae to fix CO2 has
been proposed as a method of removing CO2 from
flue gases from power plants, and thus can be used to reduce emission (Trans
et al, 2008). Although the use and expansion of biofuels is a developing
sustainable practice, there is some debate as to whether the production of
biofuels is in conflict with food supply.
First
generation biofuels, like biodiesel and bioethanol’s, are derived from popular
food crops such as sugarcane, sugar beet, maize and wheat. The use of these crops has sparked a “food
versus fuel” controversy. The better choice for an all-around sustainable fuel
is from the second generation biofuels which are extracted from microalgae. The use of algae as
energy crops has potential, due to their easy adaptability to growth
conditions, the possibility of growing either in fresh-or marine waters and
avoiding the use of land (Tran et al, 2008).
In
order to make a real difference in the use of this fuel, it needs to be applied
for large scale productions. One method to meet this goal is to grow suitable
biomass species in an integrated biomass production conversion system (IBPCS). This
approach is still under study and is very dependent upon the culturing of microalgae,
harvesting and processing of biomass. In the idealized
case, the conversion plants are located in or near the biomass growth areas to
minimize the cost of transporting biomass to the plants, of which all the non-fuel
effluents are recycled to the growth areas (Trans et al, 2008). This is
still an ideal and has not been put into practice. However, it shows the great
strides engineers and scientist are making in converting the world from conventional,
dirty, limiting fuel to a cleaner readily available fuel. A sustainable and
profitable biofuel production from microalgae is very possible with more time
and investigation.
This
study is just the beginning of something beautiful. The idea of using a biomass
that can be cultured relatively quickly and easily replenished with ample about
of obtainable growth space can change the energy game. This biofuel will take
more time to be fully grasp but can start a movement to gradually switch from dirty
fuels. I believe this study is feasible with more time and money but think that
they should start more small scale then jumping into large industrial size production.
This study seems to being showing only the tip of the energy iceberg, leaving
many complications submerged. This article in particular is just trying to
spread the word of biofuel sustainability and idealize the concept of an IBPCS.
Work
Cited
Patil,V.,
Tran, K., Giselrod, H. 2008. “ Towards Sustainable Production of Biofuels from Microalgae”.
International Journal of Molecular
Sciences, Volume 9, issue 7 pg 1188-1195.
