Be excited, Earthlings, because science has a surprise for you. Engineers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have devised a way to turn algae into crude oil in less than an hour. That oil can then be refined into gasoline that can run engines. Excited yet? Try wrapping your head around the implications of a breakthrough like this. As one of the most plentiful lifeforms on the planet, algae is a perfect candidate for conversion to biofuel. It’s especially good because the energy is packed pretty tightly into that green sludge. To replace all of the petroleum in the United States with algae fuel, you’d need a farm that took up just 0.42 percent of the country’s landmass. By comparison, it would take up half of the United States to grow enough soybeans to replace petroleum with biodiesel.
Algae fuel is not a new idea, of course, and this is not the first time scientists have turned algae into fossil fuel. It is the first time they’ve done it so effortlessly and so quickly, however. Other methods require too much time and energy for the conversion to make sense as a petroleum replacement. The new process solves that problem. “It’s a bit like using a pressure cooker, only the pressures and temperatures we use are much higher,” said Douglas Elliott, who led the research. “In a sense, we are duplicating the process in the Earth that converted algae into oil over the course of millions of years. We’re just doing it much, much faster.”
This magic gas could be coming to your local gas station sooner than you think. The Department of Energy already has a partner, Genifuel, working on commercializing the process and making the algae fuel competitive with what’s already on the market. But, boy, is it going to be futuristic when you pull up to a gas station and pump your tank full of algae. Talk about going green.
More Stories
Stanford scientists develop water splitter that runs on ordinary AAA battery
Hongjie Dai and colleagues have developed a cheap, emissions-free device that uses a 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen...
Scientists turn to hemp for cheap, fast-charging batteries
Forget lab-made materials like graphene -- natural, old-fashioned hemp may be the ticket to our energy future. Researchers have demonstrated...
Using Sand to Improve Battery Performance
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — Researchers at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering have created a lithium ion...
Toyota Takes on Tesla With Its First Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car
Toyota has announced its first commercial hydrogen fuel cell car, a sedan based on the concept unveiled at the 2013...
Scientists Solved the Mystery of Why Rechargeable Batteries Go Bad
Every time you recharge your lithium-ion battery, their storage capacity decreases just a little bit. That is why your mobile...
This Parking Lot Is Paved With Solar Panels
The Idaho couple who created an innovative road surface made of solar panels is back with a prototype, and they’re...