Algae Provides Potential Alternative Fuel Source

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa aims to develop a process for the production of biodiesel from algae, states CSIR bioprocessing development research team leader Raj Lalloo. The desktop study for this project was started in 2006, and laboratory research was undertaken earlier this year.

“Algae have long been known to produce lipids that can be used for biodiesel production. With the current world-wide impetus on cleaner fuels and environmental awareness, algal biodiesel is an attractive option, as the specific production of oil from a unit of biomass is extremely high in algae, compared with most seed crops,” says Lalloo. Lalloo also argues that algae have advantages over oilseed crops in that they do not use arable land, and can be used to simultaneously sequestrate carbon dioxide emissions, such as flue gases.

CSIR lead researcher Dheepak Ramduth says that algae can produce up to 90 times more lipids for one unit of biomass than the best oil seed crop, and that it has the potential to use wastewater as a source of media.

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