Can Algae Oil Save the Earth?

In our green real estate section we usually try to focus on environmentally friendly tips for our homes. But this article will be focused on an interesting research, which may lead to helping us if we are feeling guilty because of our cars eat up too much gas. Oil is an crucial part of our everyday lives. People in the developed countries often cannot think of a life without a car, it is just so common to own one. As most of the realtors whose job includes driving around a lot, I do the same. Imagine a life without a car - isn't it almost impossible? The prices of oil are driven up and down by the unsound oil supplies and our nature is suffering from carbon dioxide emissions and fuel burning. These are the well-known crucial problems of driving.

Craig Venter is an American biologist and also a successful enterpreneur who established The Institute for Genomic Research. Genetic engineering is the main topic of his work, that has caused a great deal of heated debate by his most recent project.

We already know that algae are able to create natural oil. This has been the topic of several experiments with biofuels. Venter has ambitions to go further. He is trying to explore if it's possible to adjust the genomic structure of algae in order to make them create oil of almost the same composition as the traditional crude oil. If that works out, we would be able to use the current refineries and other oil industry infrastructure already available. Also plastics could be produced the same way as from crude oil refining, using the current production plants. It doesn't shock us that one of the companies producing the most oil on the planet, Exxon Mobile, contributed $600 million for Ventor to go on with his research.

Now your concern might be, where is the ecological benefit? Well, right here. The oil created by algae might well contribute to dealing with one of the most serious problems of our world. Plants take the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, utilize it in a photosynthesis process to create the oil and then the oil is burned and turned into oxalates. It will of course take more time to figure all this out, this promising solution won't be available this or next year. But for sure it is a hopeful way to try, and Craig Venter with his team have made the first steps towards a success on a field where others have already tried and failed. There are plenty of people in Canada and elsewhere that would love to go easy on the environment, but due to their occupation, it is very difficult for them to stop using cars.