Do you think oil from algae is the future for car fuel? If yes why?

I'm confused about its CO2 reduction and how it can be used in cars without any change being implemented to the car Do you think oil from algae is the future for car fuel? If yes why?
I think algae produced fuel is a wonderful idea.


I expect it to make it to commercial production. Do you think oil from algae is the future for car fuel? If yes why?
I think synthetic fuels made from solar energy such as the experiment at Sandia Labs will be the future. They synthesized CO from CO2, H2 from H2O and then finally hydrocarbons from the CO and H2. The synthesis of fuel from CO and H2 is already done in commercial quantities by the US Air Force, Shell's GTL plant, South Africa and WWII Nazi Germany but they all got the CO and H2 from incomplete combustion of coal or natural gas.





Algae is a good shortcut in the process (nature's nanites) but ultimately more of the energy could be put into creating the fuel instead of keeping the algae's other metabolic functions going.





Bio-diesel, synthetic diesel and petroleum diesels are all oil blends with an average hydro-carbon chain length between 10 and 13. he difference is that bio-diesel and synthetic diesel are cleaner more uniform ie.: more likely to be mostly Decane while petroleum diesel will be all sorts of crap that averages out to the same length. Technically they are all the same hence the no modifications needed requirement, the petroleum diesel is just a dirtier mix.





Vegetable oils such as peanut oils have chain lengths upwards of 18. Used vegetable oils will have chain lengths as high as 30. The higher chain length oils are what gels over but you're supposed to reduce the chain length of the vegtable oil by titrating with sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner). The sodium hydroxide reacts with oil to form glycerins (soap) thereby cutting a segment out of a chain hence breaking the chain into two shorter chains (it's a random process, you don't know where in the chain it's going to chop it and you don't know if every chain will get chopped). Bio-diesel that gels are bio-diesels that still have mostly long chains. With better refinement, instead of backyard biodiesel, cold weather biodiesel will be as feasible as cold weather petroleum diesel (tends to form wax on it's surface in cold weather). Many ';home'; biodiesel haven't been titrated, the owners opting to use the heat in engine coolant to keep regular vegetable oils fluid enough to use. Another problem with biodiesel is the use of methanol to disperse the sodium hydroxide enough so that it cuts up as many chains as possible, otherwise it would just react with the nearest chain completely turning it all into soap. Methanol is corrosive and can damage engine parts, hoses and gaskets designed for petroleum diesel (Sodium hydroxide is also corrosive so any unreacted NaOH can also damage parts). Again, proper refinement can separate out the various products.





With bio-diesel, the CO2 is just the CO2 recently removed from the air by the plants hence a zero net increase in CO2. Fossil fuels releases CO2 captured by plants millions of years ago hence increases the levels of atmospheric CO2
Yes. There is little difference between mineral diesel and bio-diesel fuel produced from vegetable oil sources such as Corn oil, Rapeseed oil and certain types of pond algae. Pond algae is a particularly efficient source of vegetable oil as certain types have a higher oil yield per acre than more traditional crops such as maize and rapeseed.





Growing fuel sources from crops produces a much smaller net increase in atmospheric CO2. As the plants grow, they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.





Diesel engines need no modification to run on bio diesel as there is little chemical difference between bio diesel and mineral oil diesel. Diesel engines can run on straight or waste vegetable oil, but some adjustment to the fuel delivery system may be necessary, such as heating on the fuel lines to the the fuel and modification to the fuel injectors. I currently run a Citroen ZX 1.9D on waste veggie oil.
Not by itself, but biofuel from algae oil will be part of the future of car fuel. I think electric cars will become more prevalent, but algae oil has some serious benefits. For example, it's carbon negative - meaning that the algae absorbs carbon in the process of making the oil.





I wrote a wiki article on the subject - see link below.
It might be part of the future of liquid fuels. The problem is coming up with a less expensive way to grow the algae. Researchers are trying new methods in an attempt to cut costs. Petrodiesel will still be an important fuel in cold climates because biodiesels gel at much higher temperatures. Depending what kind of plant its made from some biodiesels start to gel at 40F. Its another problem to be worked out.
Biodiesel doesn't work well in cold weather. But we can now make petroleum products in hours that would take the Earth tens of thousands of years. Biogasoline (not ethanol) is made from any plant that has sugar or carbohydrates. http://www.rexresearch.com/cortright/cor鈥?/a> Other petroleum products like diesel and jet fuel as well.





There is also a process called thermal depolymerization that takes any garbage containing carbon and turning it into crude oil.





http://www.changingworldtech.com/






there are lots of breakthrough in terms of fuel alternatives, but I'll go with water for future cars, water is abundant unlike biodiesel, but maybe yes, algae might be a part of future fuels if we have mass production of those.
Diesel engines were made to run on plant oil, not petroleum. In the future, all dieselswill run on oil. Only antiques will burn petrol.