GLOBAL WARMING
V. ASHOKKUMAR - RESEARCH SCHOLAR.
One of the most serious environmental problems today is that global warming, caused primarily by the heavy use of fossil fuels. To overcome these problems the photosynthetic microalgae are the potential candidates, for utilizing excessive amount of carbon-di-oxide. Because when cultivated these organisms are capable of fixing carbon-di-oxide to produce energy & chemical compounds upon exposure to sunlight. The derivation of energy from algal biomass is an attractive concept in that unlike fossil fuels. Since microalgae are called the scavengers of environment, because their biomass has more advantages than the fossil fuels viz… it is non explosive. Example – 150’C biodiesel compared to 64’C of petroleum diesel &also it is biodegradable, free from sulphur & it reduces the emission of carbon-mono-oxide & carbon-di-oxide. Among the microalgae, Botryococcus braunii is an unique microalgal strain having 86% of long chain hydrocarbon which is directly extractable to yield crude oil substitutes by both physical & chemical process. However, the economics of fuel production from microalgal biomass is largely dependent on a microalgal carbon-di-oxide fixation step to that required for the production of biodiesel.
One of the most serious environmental problems today is that global warming, caused primarily by the heavy use of fossil fuels. To overcome these problems the photosynthetic microalgae are the potential candidates, for utilizing excessive amount of carbon-di-oxide. Because when cultivated these organisms are capable of fixing carbon-di-oxide to produce energy & chemical compounds upon exposure to sunlight. The derivation of energy from algal biomass is an attractive concept in that unlike fossil fuels. Since microalgae are called the scavengers of environment, because their biomass has more advantages than the fossil fuels viz… it is non explosive. Example – 150’C biodiesel compared to 64’C of petroleum diesel &also it is biodegradable, free from sulphur & it reduces the emission of carbon-mono-oxide & carbon-di-oxide. Among the microalgae, Botryococcus braunii is an unique microalgal strain having 86% of long chain hydrocarbon which is directly extractable to yield crude oil substitutes by both physical & chemical process. However, the economics of fuel production from microalgal biomass is largely dependent on a microalgal carbon-di-oxide fixation step to that required for the production of biodiesel.
1 comment:
There is a basic flaw in the article. You have not explained the problem sufficiently before suggesting microalgae to fight against global warming. How microalgae helps in this cause is not explained well enough. It will be quite useful if you do so. The article goes on to advocate usage of algal biomass in place of fossil fuels. Presently biodiesel is in no place to replace fossil fuel to meet our energy demands. Microalgae can help fight global warming if it is used to sequester CO2 and somehow keep it away from the biogeochemical cycling. Please also let the readers know how much of CO2 is released through natural processes as volcanoes.
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