USU prof says algae may help solve global warming

Lowly algae, long considered the pond scum of the plant kingdom, may now be a key to help solve global warming, by capturing and storing carbon dioxide from nearby coal-fired electricity plants and allowing conversion of it into biomass diesel fuel to run trucks.

Jeff Muhs, executive director of Utah State University's Energy Laboratory's Center for Biofuels, delivered that message Wednesday to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, as it weighs where to spend money to combat climate change.

He said that with more research and development, algae has the potential to produce "fuels, can mitigate carbon emissions, reduce oil imports and price shocks, reclaim wastewater and lower food prices."

How?

"Algae uses solar energy and nutrients to transform carbon dioxide and organic matter. And due to their simple biological structure, they capture carbon more rapidly than terrestrial plants and store it in a form that can be processed into fuels such as biodiesel," he said.

"Some algae strains are capable of doubling their mass several times a day, and unlike terrestrial plants, can be cultivated on marginal desert land and use saline, brackish or waste water," he said.

In fact, Muhs said USU has been looking at using salt water from the Great Salt Lake to grow algae, and they found some strains from the lake that "have a lot of oil and grow very fast." The high amounts of oil in some types of algae can produce 10 to 50 times more biodiesel per acre than soy beans, he added.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, proclaimed that as great news and said he sees the potential of using algae to convert the Great Salt Lake into an energy source.

"I've been told, growing up there (in Utah), that the Great Salt Lake is only good for two things: salt and sunsets. If indeed we can use the brackish water that's there to create energy, that is enormous," he said.

Muhs said some strains of algae grow faster amid high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air, so he said an attractive option is placing such algae projects near places that produce a lot of carbon dioxide, such as coal-fired electricity plants.

Subcommittee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said that could be important, because about half of all U.S. electricity is produced by coal, and will be for many years. He said algae could be one of many means to help "decarbonize" coal, or at least use it more efficiently, to help solve global warming.