Friday, May 25, 2012

Sustainable Commodities Are Growing In Popularity

By Willie McGuire


The humble algae is an ingredient in one of the sustainable commodities that continues to grow in popularity. Originating from prehistoric times it was created from large blooms of algae that formed in the bottom of lakes and oceans. These bodies of water were not deep and thus provided the best environment for the creation of algae biomass inside porous rock. As the algae decomposed it created a hydrocarbon called kerogen.

This eventually became a liquid oil and today many products can be made from algae to drive engines. Algae can be converted to biodiesel, gasoline and jet fuel quickly with the help of modern technology. Biodiesel pumps can be found throughout the US by referring to a map indicating the locations.

Biodiesel is a clean burning fuel containing no petroleum. Non toxic and containing no sulfur it is known as an alternative fuel. It is not difficult to convert the oil within the algae cells into biodiesel. It is equally easy to extract the algae reservoirs since no drilling is required.

Green gasoline that contains algae is easily created since it is not difficult to duplicate the chemical composition of a petroleum-based fuel. Gasoline engines can easily consume this special green fuel blend. Research continues to be done with the goal of creating engines that are not dependent on petroleum based fuels.

Alcohol is another sustainable commodity that is being used in today's engines. Blended into gasoline it is better known as ethanol or E10. A newer blend called E85 is also being used in about 8.5 million vehicles on US roads today. New vehicle models are consistently being added to the arsenal of biomass fuel cars, trucks and SUVs.

Seaweed is also being used to create a second type of alcohol fuel called butanol. The Department of Energy has created a multi-million dollar grant allowing for research on this substance. It may not be long before this product will also be added to the array of sustainable commodities offered in the marketplace.




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