THE BEST FUEL

ALTERNATIVE

By Marco Terrazas

HYDROGEN
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in
the universe.
It is a clean type of fuel, unlike fossil fuels,
It results in heat and water instead of
greenhouse gases
It is very renewable as the water produced
can be broken up into hydrogen atoms and
can be reused.
It is very efficient, most of the energy
created can be used as fuel

HYDROGEN
Storage for hydrogen is complicated
as hydrogen must be stored in a
liquid state and kept in low
temperatures.
The cost to produce hydrogen fuel is
very expensive.
Hydrogen does not occur naturally
in the world.
The amount of energy produced
from hydrogen fuel is less than the
amount of energy is needed to
produce it.

BIODIESEL
Microalgae can produce and accumulate lipids
within their cells. These lipids on
transesterification yields biodiesel
Since Microalgae is not a common food supply,
It will not damage the ecosystem if it is
harvested in large quantities
It has a high per-acre productivity, the most out
of any biofuel previously tested.
Microalgae can grow in land that is not
agriculturally based making it very beneficial

BIODIESEL
Even though it seems promising,
Algal strands must be tested to find
the highest energy producing
strands to harvest.
New ways to extract the lipids from
the algae must be found to make
the job easier
The problem is a large sum of land
is needed for such an endeavor
All of the production must be
done at a cost that makes it
competitive with petroleum based
companies -Philip T. Pienkos

CYANOBACTERIA
They are able to produce a
lot of energy per acre
compared with other
biofuel crops.
Their survival only consists
of sunlight, water, CO2 and
a few nutrients
Cyanobacteria can be
grown in rooftop PBRs or
wherever sufficient
quantities of sunlight and
CO2 can be provided.
they are tolerant of a wide
range of temperatures,
salinities and pH
conditions.

CYANOBACTERIA
Phosphorus is needed to farm
cyanobacteria and unfortunately it
is not a low cost additive.
Once the phosphorus limitation can
be overcome, light irradiance and
CO2 become the limiting factors for
growth.
Due to the atmosphere being low
on CO2, the only way to effectively
farm this energy source is using
excess CO2 emitting from power
plants.

CONCLUSION
The most promising energy source that
could potentially be implemented is
Cyanobacteria
It has high energy yield and has no
potential drawbacks other than the amount
of resources needed for it
Unlike microalgae, It does not need as
much land and unlike Hydrogen, it does
not have a storage problem
All of cyanobacterias resources needed
for energy production are renewable.

BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED

Bacteria as Alternate Energy? Cyanobacteria Converts Sunlight into Fuel International
Business Times. (2013)
Gaurav, Kumar. Exploring Biodiesel: Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Micro algal
Source. International Journal of Green Energy. (2013): p775-796
Jain, I.P. Hydrogen the fuel for 21st century. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.
(2009): p7368-7378.
Saravanan, S. Fuzzy logic controller based power management for a standalone
solar/wind/fuel cell fed hybrid system. Journal of Renewable & Sustainable Energy.
(2013) 25p.
New Energy and fuel. Culturing Cyanobacteria for Biofuel. New energy and fuel. (July
12,2010)
Images used:
http://www.ecnmag.com/article/2013/02/broadening-horizons-alternative-fuel-vehicle-mark
et
http://alternativefuelkoval.blogspot.com/2015/11/best-alternative-fuels.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTINUED

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