Algae for Fuel?

There have been many recent and exciting developments in the field of biotechnology. One example is algae biofuel-a better alternative to corn ethanol. Corn ethanol displaced the need for 364 million barrels of oil, but producing this much corn ethanol is not sustainable, especially because corn could be used as food for people. Also, it doesn’t efficiently fuel cars. Algae are much easier to grow; they do not need farmland, but need only tanks, land and sunshine. They also grow much faster than corn does. Algae may even be able to grow with wastewater, providing another benefit to this growing project, which is being developed by companies such as Sapphire Energy.

Cement making accounts for about five percent of global carbon emissions. It may sound small, but every percent counts. To resolve this, firms are attempting to make cement production more energy efficient. Among these attempts are reformulating the product used to waterproof it, but even more revolutionary is the company Novacem’s current product of a new cement that actually absorbs carbon dioxide. To accomplish this, the carbon rich limestone currently used in cement is replaced with magnesium silicates with no stored carbon. If this project is applied on a commercial scale, it could reduce carbon emissions by more than five percent. How does it have this carbon-absorbing property? As the cement hardens, the carbon dioxide in the air reacts with it to form a carbonate precipitate that strengthens the cement while keeping the gas in its grasp.

[Top Green Tech Ideas article from Biology]

By Victoria Johnson