Algae: The World's New Alternative Energy Source?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/11/algae-the-worlds-new-alte_n_642184.htmlPublished 7-11-10
Summary:
A group of students and profesors from the College of William and Mary are investigating a new technique to harvest energy. They have discovered a way to use a floating dock to trap algae and certain nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. The invention will be able to produce six to eight gallons of dry algae every 2 weeks. Although this is obviously not enough to fix American's energy issues, the group is working to find the way it can make biodiesel in the most cost effective way. Also, this experiment could reduce up to 20% of a lake's toxic material. Many other colleges are also investigating the possiblity of algae becoming a new enery source.
Opinion:
I thought that using algae to produce energy was extremely intriguing. I never knew there were many positive aspects of algae, but this could prove to be very beneficial. If one team of students and professors came up with this technique, and there are other colleges investigating even more methods to find renewable energy, we will be less dependent on oil in no time. I believe that this could become very sucessful if it was used on a larger scale. For now, it cannot help much because it is on such a small level, but if it was put into effect on a larger scale, algae could make a huge difference. Reading this article reminded me of how we learned about the algal blooms that choke out life in many bodies of water. The blooms reproduce very quickly and take over the area in a very short period of time. If the algal blooms are able to have such a negative impact, we should use these fast-growing blooms to make something positive out of it.
Questions:
1. Do you think this method will ever be used on a larger scale?
2. Do you see any downfalls to using algae for energy?
3. Why do you think this method not being put into action all over the world currently?
This new way of harvesting energy seems very interesting to me. I couldn't believe that algae could help our energy problem. Even though it wouldn't help out immensely it still counts. I think it is a great idea because this experiment could reduce up to 20% of the lake's toxic material. If we use this idea on a much larger scale we could have an entirely new alternative energy that we could almost completely rely on. This article reminded me of the same thing it reminded Kiersten of. We learned that algal blooms can be very bad. They kill all of the organisms in water. Using these fast growing blooms as a positive impact is genius.
ReplyDeleteHere's a picture of an algal bloom. The green is everywhere!! ...
http://www.sea-way.org/blog/Qingdao_algae_bloom01.JPG
I've heard of different renewable sources of energy, ranging from solar power to geothermal energy, even animal wastes. However, I never heard of using algae, and what a great idea it is. Most pond-owners are fighting day after day to keep algae out of their ponds. Now, they have something to do with all the excessive algae. I know Melissa said that algae is on such a small scale, but if every pond owner in America performed their daily chore of clearing all the algae in their pond and collected it into one place, I believe that would accumulate a sufficient amount algae to produce a legitimate amount of energy. If this went on everyday, who knows? Maybe we could end this energy crisis.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3:
I think the only reason algae is not being used as an alternative energy source is because just as melissa mentoned earlier, the supply is insufficient as of now. I think its safe to say that the typical US family has at least one electronic device on 24/7, whether it'd be a phone charger or fish tank filter. If we wanted to supply over a million families with that much of energy, I can guarentee we would not go past several minutes. And that only pertains to the US. If we put to an international scale, the supply would not last several seconds.
Opinion: This is truly a remarkable new source of energy. In today's state of age, any new energy source is great, especially when it is a renewable source. It is even better that the new source is algae, a common find around the world. Like InSung said, all of the excessive algae in the world now has a use. It can be directed towards creating energy. This is a great leap forward in ending the energy crisis of our generation.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Question 3: Well, some countries around the world are still developing. They may not have enough economic success at this point to start the project and get more energy from algae.