Courtesy of Solix

THE METHODS: Top Four Ways Algae Can Fix the Future of Energy

THE PROCESS: How to Make Oil from Algae in Four Steps

Forget wind power or solar power or all the other promising but frustratingly incremental solutions to America's energy crisis. The answer, instead, could be algae. It's plentiful and, like corn and soybeans, can be processed into oil and gas to power our factories, cars, and airplanes. But unlike ethanol, oil made from algae won't compete with the food supply. And because algae can grow off a power plant's carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, it can help solve, rather than exacerbate, global warming. According to some estimates, by dedicating just 2 percent of its land mass to algae production, America could meet all of its energy needs.

The U. S. government abandoned its algae-as-fuel research program in 1996 because it didn't think it could ever get the price competitive with petroleum oil. But with oil prices now far higher and global warming an ever-increasing concern, interest in algae oil is back, and tens of millions of dollars of venture capital has followed. There are dozens of different approaches, but the end goal is the same: to find a production method that will fuel America -- and the twenty-first century.

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