Investigadores japoneses veêm futuro do óleo nas algas

(Notícia em Inglês)
Could Japan become a major oil-producing nation? That's the dream of researchers at IHI NeoG Algae LLC, which is working on extracting oil not from new holes in the ground, but from algae.

The company -- a joint venture between heavy machinery and shipbuilding giant IHI Corp. and two biotech companies -- was formed this past summer as research and investment from major firms began to pour into algae-based biofuels.

"This is the oil we extracted," says IHI NeoG President Tomohiro Fujita, holding out a test tube containing a few drops of scentless yellow liquid at the company's lab in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. The yellow oil -- apparently equivalent to the A-grade heavy oil used to fuel fishing boats -- was produced by single-cell algae called "botryococcus braunii," which grow in lakes and estuaries. The algae absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and convert it into hydrocarbons that cluster around the algae cells' nuclei. However, it takes 1.5 liters of liquid algae culture to produce just 2 to 3 milliliters of oil.

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