Did you know that the diesel engine was originally invented to run on vegetable oil?

What goes around, evidently does come back around.

Today, aquaculture—farming algae—is creating vegetable oil for fueling vehicles and aircraft. Algal research and development is rapidly advancing as new discoveries highlight the advantages of using algae to address difficult environmental and energy challenges. Algal fuels can be produced using ocean or wastewater, are biodegradable, and are relatively harmless to the environment if spilled. Algae can yield more than 30 times more energy per unit area than other, second-generation biofuel crops.

MRIGlobal’s Center for Integrated Algal Research focuses on research and technology development associated with identifying and optimizing algal species for carbon dioxide sequestration and biofuel production. The Center’s state-of-the-art laboratories in Missouri, Florida, and Maryland provide clients with customized research and development applications in an efficient and timely approach. MRIGlobal’s algae-related laboratory resources include:

• Enclosed hybrid photobioreactor systems
• Continuous flow, closed loop photobioreactor
• Open bioreactor systems (pond and raceway cultivation systems)
• Dedicated algal laboratories
• Bench and pilot scale processing equipment (harvesting, oil extraction, conversion)