Biofuels from Microalgae and Seaweeds

Book · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2010

OSTI ID:1000633

Huesemann, Michael H; Roesijadi, Guritno; Benemann, John; Metting, F Blaine

8.1 Introduction: Seaweeds and microalgae have a long history of cultivation as sources of commercial products (McHugh 2003; Pulz and Gross 2004). They also have been the subject of extensive investigations related to their potential as fuel source since the 1970s (Chynoweth 2002). As energy costs rise, these photosynthetic organisms are again a focus of interest as potential sources of biofuels, particularly liquid transportation fuels. There have been many recent private sector investments to develop biofuels from microalgae, in part building on a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program from 1976 to 1996 which focused on microalgal oil production (Sheehan et al. 1998). Seaweed cultivation has received relatively little attention as a biofuel source in the US, but was the subject of a major research effort by the DOE from 1978 to 1983 (Bird and Benson 1987), and is now the focus of significant interest in Japan, Europe and Korea...

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1000633
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-58682
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
BIOFUELS
CULTIVATION
ENERGY ACCOUNTING
PRODUCTION
SEAWEEDS