Is Home Algae Biofuel An Option?

With the enormous fuel yields of 2,000 – 5,000 gallons per acre possible from a crop of algae it might be tempting to think about growing enough at home to provide for your own energy needs. And that’s exactly what researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture and Ohio University are going to do.

With a grant from the National Science Foundation the research is going to first focus on how algae might be integrated with waste stream management as a solution for the energy needs of a single-family residence, and then scaled up for use by an entire community.

Algae may be the only crop with the potential yield to make this possible, and it’s ability to grow in wastewater treatment applications has already been demonstrated, as shown in the video below.

And distributed energy production like this could go a long way toward reducing our reliance on energy imports from abroad, or your neighbor for that matter.