NYMU-Taipei

Microalgae Biofuel Assistant

Ever since humans realized that oil depletion was inevitable, scientists began conducting research on alternative resources - biofuels. However, scientists met several problems along the way. During the process of transforming other food crops like corn and soybeans into biofuel, there were many disadvantages such as having low calorific value, low production, and lacking suitable lands for planting. However, after a plethora of experiments, a new raw material of biofuel was produced: microalgae.

Microalgae, which first appeared in the scientific world in the 1980s, have once again reemerged in the 21st century. The lipids that was produced by microalgae can now be used as raw materials of biofuel. In comparison to other oil-producing crops, microalgae have much more advantages. For instance, microalgae can be grown in almost any environment, multiply quickly and doesn’t cause environmental pollution.

The reason why microalgae are not widely used so far is because the cost of using microalgae to produce biofuel is rather higher than the cost of petroleum. Currently, there are two types of ecosystem to produce biofuel by using algae: open system and closed system. In an open system, the efficiency of producing biofuel is extremely low but it costs less. On the other hand, in closed system, the efficiency of producing biofuel is extremely high but it costs a lot. Therefore, our team decided to reduce the cost of algae by increasing the productivity of the open system. By using microalgae, the strategies of producing biomass energy can be listed into three steps: breeding the microalgae, harvesting the production, and processing the oil.

To accomplish our goal, we decide to extract the idea of symbiotic bacteria. By co-culturing a modified microbe, which had been experimentally proven that it can live with the oil-producing algae – Chlorella – successfully, we can increase the amount of oil production. We hope our modified bacteria will ultimately be analogous with plants like Bacillus species.

Improving the oil productivity can effectively reduce the production cost. Most importantly, the biomass energy of microalgae will then be one step closer to success. We believe that facing the threats of energy crisis, the breakthrough of our project will ultimately make great contributions to the future developments of biofuel.