Welcome To Microalgae And More.
At our Website we want to share with you some information concerning the versatility of Microalgae. Microalgae, also called Phytoplankton (Phyto = plant, plankton = microscopic organism) are microscopic plants found in waters all over the planet. They are found in every imaginable place, from freezing Antarctic waters to boiling waters in volcanic areas as well as moist soils on land. These remarkable plants containa wise and interesting array of phyto-nutrients.
This versatility makes them a good choice for healthfood supplements, stockfeeds, cosmetics, organic fertilizers and in recent times, biofuel. Some microalgae such as Spirulina and Chlorella are gaining popularity as healthfood supplements because they contain a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, protein, amino acids and carotenes.
Most people associate Omega-3 with fish, however fish are unable to synthesise this important product and in turn extract it from microalgae. Many microalgae produce Omega-3, but some produce outstanding amounts. Omega-3 from microalgae doesn't become rancid like fish oil or taste fishy.
Most microalgae's contain significant amounts of Lipids and as result of this there has been much interest in recent years in finding strains with high amounts of oil that can be used to make biodiesel. This has exciting possibilities. When we burn fossil fuels, we release into the atmosphere carbon byproducts that have been stored underground for thousands of years. Now imagine fuel derived from microalgae, any carbon byproducts released into the atmosphere would have been harvested from the atmosphere only days or weeks earlier. Research suggests that microalgae can potentially produce 90,000 litres of oil/hectare/year, compared to Soybean (450 litres/hectare/year) and Canola (1200 litres/hectare/year). Whilst corn, soybeans and canola grown for oil for biodiesel need arable land to grow on, (thus reducing the area available for food production), microalgae can often be grown in waste water on land that's not suitable for food production.
Microalgae are finding their way into many industrial processes. I regularly read of city councils who are using microalgae to clean their wastewater as an alternative to engineered solutions. Many then harvest the algae and use it to produce biocrude oil.
