little talk about algae

[mohamed elbadry]

intended learning outcomes ...

algae as human food or food supplements.. and algae is animal food and have medical uses .it's lipids from microalgae ..

diatomaceous earth.

it's has commercial application of algal hudrocolloids..

algae amd agriculture

Nitrogen fixation

microalgal soil comditioers

PGR from algae

the role of microalgae in liquid waste treatment and reclamation

 

and now let's see these poitns

 

Algae as human food or food suplements

 

1.microlage are rich in protein and contains more than adequare amounts of L-amino acids

2.algae contain polyunsartuted fatty acides which are essential for human nutrition

3.higher plant foods are usually very low in riboflavin and nicotinate and clbalamin..these vitamins and mineral requirements may be satisfied by the addition of microlage to human food

4.algae grown in seawater contain high iodine essential for humans

5.Hypocholestermic and anticarcinogenic properties attributed to micro , macrolagae

6.Algae serve as some cemicals used i food industry ' amino acids,vitamins,lipids,food cplpuring or antioxidants, flavouring , tickening , clarifying agents..

source http://bit.ly/blwq6k

By dr.mohamed elbadry

Head of the Department Microbiology .Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University

[Greippi]

How about algae as a biofuel?

[Genecks]

How about algae as a biofuel?

 

How about bacteria as biofuel and food?

 

With the creation of Mycoplasma laboratorium, I don't doubt that we could get bacteria to do both.

 

Bacteria have lower surface area than eukaryotic organisms, as such, I suspect prokaryotes could better be modeled to complete both tasks. Consumption and excretion of resources should be faster with prokaryotes than eukaryotes. Earlier in my school semester, I bounced ideas of a geneticist whom works with Streptococcus pneumonia about various eukaryote vs. prokaryote usages. I've come to consider that prokaryotes win the game. Given enough time and knowledge, I suspect I could quickly make rice wine. An old-fashioned way of making sake (kuchikami no sake) involved a person chewing up the rice and then spitting it into a container. Keep in mind that the human mouth is filled with many bacteria. Thus, the fermentation process was being undertaken by the bacteria in the mouth, not something, such as yeast.

 

Much research was done on algae during the Aquatic Species Program. However, I believe research with bacteria is going to be where the direction heads.

 

In terms of algae, there is a supplement called "Spiru-tein" that is often sold at health food places: It contains spirulina. All I would have left to do is find a way to get bacteria to excrete nutritional drinks, have a vat of it all, and then be able to live extremely frugal. If I could also get bacteria to start producing flour/wheat/etc.. I would be set. There would have to be a large influence on quality control, though, because bacteria have the bad habit of mutating. Eukarotic organisms, on average, do not mutate as much as prokaryotic organisms

 

With the spirulina, you get a single-celled organism combined with aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.

 

January 27, 2010 | 23 comments

Bacteria Transformed into Biofuel Refineries

Synthetic biology has allowed scientists to tweak E. coli to produce fuels from sugar and, more sustainably, cellulose

-- http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bacteria-transformed-into-biofuel-refineries

Edited April 18, 2010 by Genecks

[Mr Skeptic]

It's a great idea, and will be especially useful for space or extraterrestrial colonies, where there isn't a huge amount of nice arable soil available. Or for the future, but personally I'd like to think that by then society will have evolved past this barbarian consumption of other organisms and synthesize our own food directly. For now, they can work on making sure it tastes OK, is highly nutritious, and functions at high efficiency.

[Greippi]

In the field of biofuels, photosynthetic organisms are the key. Photosynthetic algae and bacteria only need sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to make biomass. In today's world where "green" issues are high on our agenda, carbon-neutral sources of fuel are extremely desirable. 100 tons of algal biomass fixes about 183 tons of carbon dioxide.

 

The dry weight of some microalgae is more than 80% oil (compare this with less than 5% for soybean, or oil palm).

Since the oil yield is so high, to provide the USA with all the biodesel it would need in a year (replacing petroleum derived transport fuel) microalgae would only need 3% of the US cropping area to produce this amount (oil palm would require 61%). This land doesn't even have to be agriculturally productive!

 

Another advantage is that the biomass doubling time of microalgae is only 24 hours.

 

'Biodiesel from microalgae beats bioethanol' Chisti, Y (2008). Trends in Biotech 26, 126-131.

[CharonY]

Unfortunately there is still a big gap between theory and practical application. Right now biodiesel from algae are still too expensive to produce, which, among others is due to their low yield (even using GM cyanobacteria). Still, it has potential, though from the last results I have no idea where the breakthrough should be coming from.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I attend a seminar course from a professor whose lab works on biodiesel produced by algae. He's extremely optimistic about it -- he believes that an algae pool could produce several thousand times more biodiesel than a similarly-sized plot of land growing corn for ethanol, provided a few tricks are used: add fish to stir up the algae pool and provide algae fertilizer, pump in semi-treated sewage for similar purposes, and improve the processes to extract biodiesel from the algae. If done correctly, it'd be cheap and easy to run. (The trick is setting up the infrastructure -- for example, to pump in sewage.)

 

He believes that algal biofuels will be the Next Big Thing, but I'm not sure how much he's biased by working directly in the field.

[Greippi]

He believes that algal biofuels will be the Next Big Thing, but I'm not sure how much he's biased by working directly in the field.

 

Similar, my professor works on photosynthesis and the architecture of photosynthetic membranes. He was pretty convincing though. He predicts that in the future we'll have massive sculptures containing algae working away, combining science and art:

 

(This is an artists impression of an algae bioreactor)

[Mr Skeptic]

We already have similar stuff, but they're just toys. For large-scale production it is going to have to be cheap and robust, not "pretty".

[Greippi]

We already have similar stuff, but they're just toys. For large-scale production it is going to have to be cheap and robust, not "pretty".

 

Of course, but if this takes off I'm sure we'll see 'pretty' things like that in the future. After all, as you pointed out, there are already renewable energy sculptures.

[CharonY]

I attend a seminar course from a professor whose lab works on biodiesel produced by algae.

Interestingly, i am a bit more skeptical because of working adjacent to that, so to say. A colleague of mine is working on it and I have run a few things for them. I have access to the primary data and as such, while promising, is still some ways of from being the next big thing. It has potential, no doubt, though many (most) suggestions for improvement have not yet been demonstrated to provide benefits. Note that the last time I did something on that was roughly a year back. If something revolutionary happened at that time, I am still unaware of it.

[Greippi]

Interestingly, i am a bit more skeptical because of working adjacent to that, so to say. A colleague of mine is working on it and I have run a few things for them. I have access to the primary data and as such, while promising, is still some ways of from being the next big thing. It has potential, no doubt, though many (most) suggestions for improvement have not yet been demonstrated to provide benefits. Note that the last time I did something on that was roughly a year back. If something revolutionary happened at that time, I am still unaware of it.

 

What are the limitations/disadvantages that he's seeing at the moment?

 

People interested in this, might find PetroSun's website useful - in 2008 they opened the first algae biodiesel plant.

[CharonY]

From my memory major issues were low yield and the cost for the whole process (including purification). I would have to dig out the data for more details, but I am not sure whether it has already been published yet.

[Greippi]

Incorrect... they also require a fine balance of nutrients spread evenly through the water, but not sluiced in too fast or it will interrupt the algae, not too slow or they won't get the nutrients, but juuuuuust right.

Oh, yes, of course. I didn't say that as I thought it was a given - my point was the fact that they don't give out carbon dioxide (i.e. photosynthesis).

 

Just realised that the guy who wrote the paper I mentioned before published one this year which might be worth a look:

 

Potential fuel oils from the microalga Choricystis minor

Sobczuk, TM; Chisti, Y

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY Volume: 85 Issue: 1 Pages: 100-108 Published: 2010

 

In fact, he's co-authored a LOT of literature on the subject, so anyone who's interested, it might be worth looking him up.