The Week in Algae

Ahh, algae! Where would we be without them? Certainly not living on a planet with a breathable atmosphere of 20% oxygen at least. Considering that they produce at least one-third to one-half of the Earth's oxygen they are not much talked about. However I noticed algae in the news in four different areas this week...

Biodiesel from Algae

Biodiesel from algae has long been seen as a potential solution to our liquid transport fuel needs, with the US Department of Energy (under the forward thinking, but politically inept Carter adminstration) establishing an aquatic species program to research biodiesel from algae. The program was cancelled in the 80's however currently research is ongoing with one research group at UNH promoting that "just" 200,000 hectares (780 sq miles) of desert salt-water algae ponds could meet the entire US demand... provided certain practical problems are solved, of course.

So it was very encouraging to read this week that New Zealand has become the first nation in the world to commercially produce biodiesel from algae. NZ company Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation formed an agreement with the Marlborugh District Council to extract oils from excess algae coming from a municipal sewerage pond discharge.

Production is estimated at 1,000,000 litres per year, which in oil-field speak is only 6,300 bbls/year, as much as some productive wells would produce in a day. However this production is from a small town, and there are many other sources of nutrient rich waters to grow algae in, such as dairy farm run-off, so if this system were established widely it would provide significant volumes of biofuels.

Hydrogen from Algae

Suprisingly, some algea can photosynthesise hydrogen gas, but they only do so when under certain stressed environmental conditions and at very low yields. However, a join German-Australian research team has had some success genetically modifying algae to produce more hydrogen gas.

Economic feasibility with regard to algae sets in only when the energy efficiency - the conversion of sunlight into hydrogen - reaches 7-10 percent. But alga in its natural form achieves at most a meagre 0.1 percent. The new "turbo-alga" has now come up to 1.6-2.0 percent.

"We have not reached our goal yet," says [microbiologist] Kruse, calmly announcing: "We want to reach it in five years."

Apparently, when the goal is reached "a reactor shaped like a cube measuring three metres per side and filled with algae could supply a two-person household with their energy needs." I am somewhat skeptical of this claim, however this does appear to be a promising area of research.

And now for the bad news...

Ocean warming set to devastate coral

Corals live in a mutually beneficial relationship with photosynthetic algae. But when sea surface temperatures at a given location rise above summer limits, the corals expel their single-celled bedfellows (possibly because the algae start producing toxins).

Algae provide corals with most of their energy and their colour - hence the term bleaching. If the high temperatures are prolonged, the corals start to die off en masse.

I don't really have much to say. Except considering that the global temperature response to system forcings (e.g. green house gases, carbon dioxide et al) is delayed by many years take the opportunity to dive on some living coral reefs now.

And finally, something

Random

The latest in the long line [of supplements] is a type of marine algae called Dunaliella salina. It grows in only a few places around the world, including Australia, Israel and India, and it's getting researchers excited on several counts.

Marc Cohen is the founding professor of Complementary Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University and president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association. He says that Dunaliella salina isn't new - in fact, it's been around for over 500 million years.

"Microbiologists have known for a long time about the benefits of Dunaliella salina," says Professor Cohen. "It's the world's richest source of beta-carotene and has, gram for gram, more than 350 times more beta-carotene than carrots."

I bet my carrots taste nicer though, stir-fried with some soy, honey, garlic and sesame seeds... oh joy.