The best way to go about understanding a how is to first get a good understanding of the what involved - that's one principle that I believe in and live by! Hence, before proceeding towards understanding how to make algae biofuel, let's take a closer look at what algae biofuel is all about. As the name suggests, this type of fuel is derived from algae and the method most commonly used is breaking down the alga's carbohydrate content via fermentation. This fermentation would result into biologically produced forms of the alcohols ethanol and butanol. Although it is gaining a lot of popularity these days as a potential alternative for traditional fossil fuels, this is so merely due to the fact that the doubled-edged sword of rapid depletion of traditional resources and ever increasing fossil fuel prices is hanging over the head of human civilization by a precariously thin thread.Other than that, algal fuel doesn't offer us much novelty value in terms of low polluting potential. You see, burning algal biofuel releases equally large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air as burning coal or petroleum based fuels do, as algae, being plant forms, need atmospheric carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. When you make fuel out of algae and burn it, this locked up carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere, undoing what algae did during its lifetime as a botanical life form. That being said, let's proceed towards finding out all about the algae biofuel extraction process.
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