The first factory produced fuel from algae

An Austrian company will build a biofuel-based biofuel plant in northeastern Brazil by the end of next year.

The SAT, the name of the Austrian company, will build a plant on a sugarcane plantation in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil. This plantation is where ethanol is produced from sugarcane. The cost of building a factory is 9.8 million USD, AFP reported.

"Our factory will produce 1.2 million liters of fuel per year," said Rafael Bianchini, branch manager of the SAT in Brazil.

Each algae is a tiny biological plant. They convert carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy by photosynthesis. Their conversion is so effective that their weight can increase many times a day. In addition, during photosynthesis, algae also produce oil. On the same unit of area, the amount of oil that algae produces is 30 times more than that of soybeans. Diesel engines can directly burn algae oil. Scientists also purify this oil into biodiesel.

Scientists at the University of Virginia (USA) have found that humans can increase the algae's ability to produce oil by allowing them to absorb more CO2 (a greenhouse gas) and releasing them into the environment. Rich in organic matter (like waste water). This solution has created biofuels and cleaned the environment.

According to Rafael, the new plant will utilize carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) released during the production of ethanol from sugarcane to speed up the photosynthesis of algae and reduce CO ₂ emissions into the environment.

"For every liter of ethanol produced, humans release a kilo of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We will use CO2 in ethanol production into our factory , " Bianchini said.

Initially the SAT plant will only use 5% of the CO2 in ethanol production. Then this ratio will increase gradually over time.

The SAT project will be submitted to the Brazilian National Petroleum Authority for approval.

Brazil is the second largest country, just behind the US, in biofuel production.