The future of biofuels?
Just turn to the fish tank.

Seaweed may put a damper on a summer beach trip, but its cousin algae is at the forefront of biofuels research. According to a study conducted by Ron Putt, associate research professor at Auburn’s Center for Microfibrous Materials Manufacturing in the Department of Chemical Engineering, widespread cultivation of microalgae has the potential to make Alabama and the U.S. self-sufficient in terms of liquid fuels for transport. Alabama has the potential to produce its three billion gallons of transportation fuels a year from one million acres of algae ponds that comprise only 3 percent of the state’s land.

“This amount of acreage is not unreasonable to consider, since the state currently has more than 150,000 acres of man-made ponds, including recreational, farm and aquaculture ponds,” says Putt.

Algal fuels do not affect freshwater resources and can be produced using ocean and wastewater. They are also biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled. Though the cost per pound is greater, algae can yield more than 30 times the energy for each acre than other second-generation biofuel crops.

Algal biomass can be converted to transportation fuels because of the low cost and efficient process of anaerobic digestion, which produces a biogas rich in methane. Methane can then be purified and dried for injection into the natural gas pipeline or liquefied to natural gas, a cleaner alternative to petroleum-based fuels.

Putt and a growing number of individuals and organizations in the Southeast share a vision of producing 80 billion gallons per year of transportation fuels, half the nation’s requirement, on 30 millions of acres of ponds stretching from Florida to Texas.