Will we save our Earth by algae oil?

Will oil made by algae save us?

In our green real estate section we usually try to focus on environmentally friendly ideas for our homes. If you drive around daily in a car that needs more and more gas and you feel guilty, this article will bring you some interesting information about a new research. Oil is an essential part of our everyday lives. Nowadays, the fundamental part of a life in the developed world is a car, and nearly everybody owns one. So do I, of course, as a realtor who drives around daily. Life would just be impossible without our dear car. Unfortunately, we all know the two basic problems connected to driving: unsound oil supplies driving prices up and down and the environmental harm caused by fuel burning and the related carbon dioxide emissions.

Craig Venter is an American biologist and also a successful businessman who founded The Institute for Genomic Research. He mainly deals with genetic engineering and his most recent project has aroused a great deal of heated debate.

Algae are known for producing natural oil, which is already part of a number of experiments with biofuels. Venter wishes to go further. He is trying to find out if it’s possible to modify the genomic structure of algae in order to make them produce oil of almost the same structure as the traditional crude oil. This option is so much better, as you can use existing oil industry infrastructure like refineries, and even make plastics in the same way as from crude oil refining employing the same production plants that are presently being used. As Exxon Mobile, being one of the most successful oil producers in the world, heard of all this, they gave Venter a $600 million contribution to go on with his research.

Now your concern might be, where is the environmental benefit? Well, right here. It is quite possible that the algae oil could help us cope with one of our most serious threats of the present world. Plants take the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, utilize it in a photosynthesis process to produce the oil and then the oil is 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 possible way to try, and Craig Venter with his team have gone the first steps towards a success on a field where others have already tried and failed. There are many people in Canada and elsewhere that want to protect the environment, but due to their occupation, it is very difficult for them to stop using cars, just like so many of my fellow Toronto realtors can’t.

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