Venice's love city produces electricity from algae

The romantic city port of Venice (Italy) is planning to build a factory to produce electricity from algae to self-supply energy.

A corner of Venice port.Photo: trivago.com.

Port authorities in Venice said the plant will be operational within the next two years and generate 40 megawatts of electricity each year. They argue that energy sources that do not pollute the environment can help maintain the ecological balance of this ancient city.

Earlier two algae-based power plants were built in Europe and construction in Venice would be the first of its kind in Italy. Enalg - a renewable energy supplier in Italy - will partner with Venice port in the construction of a plant with an investment of 200 million Euro (272.6 million USD).

Meanwhile, many companies are investing in research projects to find out how to extract vegetable oil from algae - one of the oldest life forms on earth. From vegetable oils they can make biofuels and many other fuels.

In Venice, algae will be grown in laboratories. They put them into plastic cylinder tubes with water, CO2 _and then dried in the sun to create photosynthesis. The after-reaction mixture will continue to be processed to produce a fuel that is capable of turning turbines.

The CO2 produced during treatment will be returned to the algae. As a result, the power plant does not emit CO ₂ . The Port of Venice needs about 7 megawatts of electricity each year while the plant has a capacity of 40 megawatts a year. The excess electricity will be provided to ships anchored in the port.