Can oil produced by algae save our planet?

In this "green" section, we usually bring you texts focused on how to live more environmentally friendly. If you drive around daily in a car that consumes more and more gas and you feel guilty, this article will bring you some interesting information about a new research. Our everyday routine has many important parts and oil is usually one of them. People in the developed world often cannot think of a life without a car, it is just so common to own one. As most of the realtors whose job involves driving around a lot, I do the same. Without our dear cars, the life would be so much more difficult. Unfortunately, we all know the two main problems related to driving: unsure oil supplies driving prices up and down and the environmental damage caused by fuel burning and the related carbon dioxide emissions.

Craig Venter is an American biologist and also a successful businessman who established The Institute for Genomic Research. Genetic engineering is the main interest of his work, that has provoked a great deal of heated debate by his newest project.

Algae are known for producing natural oil, which is already part of several experiments with biofuels. But Venter has more aspirations than that. His goal is to adjust the genomic structure of algae so that they would create oil nearly the same as traditional crude oil. That would be a great step forward, as we would be able to use the existing oil industry infrastructure such as refineries, and even plastics production could use the existing procedure and production plants as we are using currently, making plastics from crude oil. As Exxon Mobile, being one of the biggest oil producers in the world, heard of all this, they gave Venter a $600 million grant to go on with his research.

And now you may be demanding, OK, but what is so great about it from the environmental point of view? Well, just this. The oil created by algae might well contribute to dealing with one of the most serious problems of our world. Plants take the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, utilize it in a photosynthesis process to create the oil and then the oil is burned and changed into oxalates. Of course, this hopeful solution won't be available this or next year, but for sure it is a good way to go. The team of Craig Venter are trying to succeed where others have tried and failed, but this time there is a good chance of success. There are many people out there that want to protect the environment, but due to their occupation, it is very difficult for them to stop using cars, just like so many of my Toronto real estate colleagues can't.