Will oil made by algae save the Earth?

Will oil produced by algae save our planet?

In this “green” section, we usually publish texts focused on how to live more environmentally friendly. But this article will be focused on an interesting research, which may lead to helping us if we are feeling bad because of our cars eat up too much oil. Oil is an important ingredient of our everyday lives. People in the developed regions often cannot think of a life without a car, it is just so common to own one. As most of the realtors whose job requires driving around a lot, I do the same. Without our dear cars, the life would be so much more difficult. Of course, the two fundamental issues of driving are well-known: prices driven up and down because of unsound oil supplies, and the environmental harm caused by fuel burning and emissions of carbon dioxide.

Craig Venter is an American biologist and also a prosperous enterpreneur who established The Institute for Genomic Research. The main topic of his work is genetic engineering. A great deal of heated debate has been aroused by his latest project.

We already know that algae are able to create natural oil. This has been the topic of several experiments with biofuels. But Craig Venter is ready to find out more than that. He is attempting to change the genomic make-up of algae in order to produce oil, which is almost identical to traditional crude oil. If that works out, we could use the available refineries and other oil industry infrastructure already available. Also plastics could be produced the same way as from crude oil refining, using the current production plants. It is no wonder that Exxon Mobile, one of the largest oil producing companies on the planet, gave him a $600 million contribution to advance with his research.

Now your concern might be, where is the ecological benefit? Well, right here. Oil production based on algae may quite likely be the solution to one of the most serious threats facing the world today. During the photosynthesis process, plants use the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to produce the oil, which is then burned and turned into oxalates. It will of course take more time to work all this out, this promising solution won’t be available this or next year. But for sure it is a hopeful way to try, and Craig Venter with his team have made the first steps towards a success on a field where others have already tried and failed. There are plenty of people in Canada and elsewhere that would love to protect the environment, but due to their occupation, it is very difficult for them to stop using cars, just like my Toronto real estate colleagues can’t.