Cheaper algae aviation fuel is about to become actualized, if the work done by University of Sheffield Professor Will Zimmerman, and recently published in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering becomes a commercial reality.
Flying planes on algae oil has been around for a few years, but it is expensive because the algae need removed from the water. By providing microbubbles to bring algae to the pond surface, it may be cheaper to harvest, and their micro-bubble maker uses a 1,000 times less energy than other versions.
“.. we used microbubbles to grow the algae more densely,” professor Zimmerman explained. “…algae biofuels still couldn’t be produced economically, because of the difficulty in harvesting and dewatering the algae. We had to develop a solution to this problem and once again, microbubbles provided a solution.”
Via BusinessGreen