25 million tons of algae are harvested each year, most of them in Asia and used for human consumption and cosmetics. But what if we used them to power our vehicles?
Danish scientists recently announced that they used an algae fuel created by a Dutch company to power a car, reaching speeds of 80 km per hour. Yes, an algae car. It will not be a Americio engine, but it is so beneficial.
“We tried to see if algae fuel works in the same way as regular fuel and what its effects are on the engine”he said Jack van Hal, who led the research team.
One of the major sources of clean renewable energy used today is biofuel. Produced from garbage or agricultural by-products from crops such as sugar, corn and soy, it contributes to energy security while reducing carbon emissions.
Algae to fuel cars: Europe's plan
In the transport sector in Europe, the vast majority of renewable energy solutions therefore use “land-based” biofuels. However, producing them still requires resources: mainly for fertilizers and irrigation. This is why Europe is looking for “marine” biofuel sources, namely algae, which require nothing more than salt water and sun to grow incredibly quickly.
The Dr. Van Hal says running a 4-hectare seaweed farm is like running a 400-hectare land farm. To make algae fuel a reality, however, sourcing on a “massive scale” is needed. Even though a farm is currently a distant “dot on the horizon,” van Hal is still excited to move forward.
Van Hal is the scientific coordinator of the MacroFuels funded by the European Union, with the aim of creating an entire industry around algae biofuels that includes cultivation, production and testing, particularly for heavy machinery such as trucks and ships with diesel engines.
Several other European companies are trying to increase the proliferation of algae biofuels for the energy sector.
