Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences | Rutgers-New Brunswick

There's Energy in Algae!

"Algaculture" Could Be the Energy Industry of the Future
Photo: Dr. Paul Falkowski.

Dr. Paul Falkowski.

Project Leader: Paul Falkowski

Scientists have looked at algae as a source of oil ever since World War II. Today, it is considered to have strong potential as a viable energy solution.

Algae are about 50 percent oil and can be grown in places that do not compete with agricultural crops. But, so far there is no economically feasible way to process the oil in algae. Dr. Paul Falkowski, director of the Rutgers Energy Institute, is working on ways to make the production process commercially viable. He is developing optimization schemes for extracting the algae from the water and for extracting the oil from the algae.

Producing a large volume of algae would not be difficult. Algae can be grown in sewage, swamps, and industrial ponds. Enough algae could be grown on just 15,000 square miles of desert to accommodate nearly all of our nation's diesel requirements.

Processing all of this algae is also an attainable goal. With enough large centrifuges, it could be done today, but not economically. The challenge is finding ways to harvest the algae to make this a profitable venture.

The United States imports most of its transportation fuels from other nations. America can become energy independent--but to do so will require scientific breakthroughs to enable the United States to produce alternative forms of energy.

For more information, visit Professor Falkowski's website.

For information on supporting this program, please contact the Development Office.

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