The green goo that defiles your pretty pond in the hot summer months may turn out to be “green gold”! Research engineers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have created a process that produces usefeul crude oil — which can be used to fuel automobiles and jet engines — from harvested algae. The byproducts of the chemical process can also yield burnable natural gas and nitrogen-rish water that can be used to grow more algae. While algae has long been recognized as a potential source of biofuel, up until now it’s been prohibitively expensive to convert algae into usable fuel outside of research labs. The technology created by PNNL is a big step forward in making algae-based fuel an economically feasible option for consumer use in the future.
