Insulation

To What Extend Can Algal Oil Be Used To Replace Gasoline?
Draco De La Puente
8 Alpha

(Word Count: 1,468)
Introduction:
The aim of this essay is to explain if algal oil will be better than gasoline to propel cars by comparing them in different aspects and how does algal oil benefits the population in the actual society, if it gets to propel cars instead of diesel or gasoline.

I will tryto explain in my essay the main points of this question. These points will be how do we grow algae, how do we extract oil from algae by explaining the process, what is the problem of fossil fuel and why is it bad, what is the main justification of using algae oil and the last one will be the point of view of the general consumer these days.

This question can make lots of ideas in our mind. Whyusing algal oil instead of diesel? I don’t know, maybe because it is more sustainable, maybe because it is cheaper, because it doesn’t contribute to global warming or destruction of the environment, because it actually produces more energy than gasoline in cars or because it simply doesn’t produce those toxic substances that gives us lung cancer or make acid rain. This is relevant because if weget to make this change the world will work in a more sustainable way and life as it is will be easier. If we, humans, are open minded we can analyze and accept this new concept that has been introduced to us to give a better change in society.

Body:
Algae can be used as biofuel and it can grow in lots of different conditions; they can grow in bodies of water or even damp places. Just like anyplant algae needs sunlight and carbon dioxide so that it can perform growth. As any plant they use as well sunlight for photosynthesis in which they turn sunlight energy into chemical energy. Algae can be grown in a closed structure called photo bioreactor (See Annex Nº 1). In this photo bioreactor you can control the environment which will make you be able to create algae at a much faster ratethen just waiting for it to grow in an open pond. The photo bioreactor can be set up to harvest algae by setting it up with nutrients and algal seeds. This means using a photo bioreactor is a sustainable way of growing algae. Different types of photo bioreactors include tanks, plastic sleeves or bags and even glass or plastic tubes. This is an effective and simple way of growing algae sustainably ata fast rate; by being sustainable it means it doesn’t damage the environment so we can see that growing algae helps us much more than burning fossil fuel. [1]

How can we get oil from algae? It's like getting juice from a lemon with a chemical reaction. There’re different ways of extracting oil from algae such as Oil Press Method (See Annex Nº 2) and The Hexane Solvent Wash Method (See Annex Nº3) but the one I am going to mention is the most efficient, Ultrasonic Extraction (See Annex Nº 5). The use of ultrasonics helps to break down the algae cell structure and expose more of the oil for extraction. The high-pressure cycles of the ultrasonic waves support the diffusion of solvents, such as cyclohexane, into the cell structure and the transfer of lipids from the cell into the solvent.The disrupted cell tissue is filtered off and the cyclohexane mixture distilled to separate off the oil. Ultrasonics are also used in conjunction with certain enzymes to break down the algae cells and makes oil production easier in the absence of a solvent. This method uses fewer methanols. Once the oil's extracted, its refined using fatty acid chains in a process called Transesterification (SeeAnnex Nº 4). A catalyst such as NaOH is mixed in with an alcohol such as methanol. This creates a biodiesel fuel combined with a glycerol. The mixture is refined to remove the glycerol. The final product is algae biodiesel fuel. The process of extracting oil from the algae is becoming universal, but companies producing algae biodiesel are using lots of different methods to grow enough algae to...