(Notícia em Inglês)
This summer, a team of Montana State University researchers made a scientific breakthrough that has eluded scientists for decades. It's a discovery that makes algae a much more viable source of biofuel.
Science and industry have been making biofuels for a long time, from things like corn oil, soybean oil, and algae oil. It's always been difficult to make a biofuel as economical as a conventional crude oil. The price of crude oil usually has to be a very high cost per barrel before it's really feasible. But the MSU Algal Biofuels group is making that a little more competitive. The team found a way to get four times as much biofuel from a given amount of algae.
"Our grad student Rob Gardner has been investigating what we did 20 years ago," said MSU Research Professor Emeritus in Microbiology Keith Cooksey.
The notion Gardner explored was adding baking soda to the algae. It's a concentrated source of carbon dioxide which plants use to grow. Dr. Cooksey tried the same thing in the 90's but said he "missed the timing." That's what Gardner found after a year and a half of research: the exact right point in the growing process to add that baking soda.
kxlf.com»
This summer, a team of Montana State University researchers made a scientific breakthrough that has eluded scientists for decades. It's a discovery that makes algae a much more viable source of biofuel.
Science and industry have been making biofuels for a long time, from things like corn oil, soybean oil, and algae oil. It's always been difficult to make a biofuel as economical as a conventional crude oil. The price of crude oil usually has to be a very high cost per barrel before it's really feasible. But the MSU Algal Biofuels group is making that a little more competitive. The team found a way to get four times as much biofuel from a given amount of algae.
"Our grad student Rob Gardner has been investigating what we did 20 years ago," said MSU Research Professor Emeritus in Microbiology Keith Cooksey.
The notion Gardner explored was adding baking soda to the algae. It's a concentrated source of carbon dioxide which plants use to grow. Dr. Cooksey tried the same thing in the 90's but said he "missed the timing." That's what Gardner found after a year and a half of research: the exact right point in the growing process to add that baking soda.
kxlf.com»