Vibha Sharma

In the endevour to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions to achieve a clean environment, humble algae appears to be taking a lead over the more-talked-about biodiesel source jatropha.

Experts say that algae farming in less than 1 per cent of India's total land can make the country self-sufficient in liquid fuel. Algae yield from one acre of wasteland can be 10 times more than jatropha and by a conservative estimate over 10,000 litres of oil can be produced from one acre of waste/degraded land, they add.

NEW DELHI

Algae, one of the commonly found fresh water plants could be the simple "environment friendly' answer to the fuel shortage in the country.

By Christopher Pala

Off the palm-fringed white beach of Butaitari, Kiribati, the view underwater is downright scary. Corals are being covered and smothered to death by a bushy seaweed that is so tough even algae-grazing fish avoid it. It settles in the reef's crevices that fish once called home, driving them away.

Dead coral stops supporting the ecosystem and, within a couple of decades, will crumble into rubble, allowing big ocean waves to reach the beach during storms and destroy the flimsy thatched huts of the Micronesians.

A TEAM of scientists at the Fisheries College and Research Institute (FCRI) at Thoothukudi has successfully extracted bio-fuel from marine micro algae. The extraction of bio-fuel by standardising the research procedure from marine micro algae is a major breakthrough and the FCRI has planned to develop an industrial model for mass production of bio-fuel from marine micro algae, said institute dean V K Venkataramani.

The sun-drenched beaches of southeast Florida lure tourists from all over the world. But few of them may realize that a torrent of human waste is dumped silently every day into the seemingly pristine waters offshore. Every day, three densely populated counties pump into the Atlantic Ocean a total of at least 300 million gallons of partially treated urban wastewater, too polluted even for watering lawns. The dumping takes place in a state heavily dependent on tourism and the patronage of international celebrities and the wealthy who maintain homes there.

Contrary to expectations, a microscopic plant that lives in oceans around the world may thrive in the changing ocean conditions of the coming decades, a team of scientists reported Thursday.

at a time when the un was trying to work towards a post-Kyoto agreement, us President George w Bush held a meeting of 17 top emitters of greenhouse gases for a dialogue on energy and climate change.

the use of algae as a source of biofuel has gained popularity in the last few years. In July 2007, three entrepreneurs from the uk came out with a way to feed algae by capturing carbon dioxide

China has sacked five officials for "dereliction of supervision' and "inadequate work' after green algae covered the country's third largest lake, the Taihu, triggering a drinking water crisis for

This study assesses the role of the blue-green algal species present in the soil in the dissipation of endosulfan and its metabolites in the soil environment. Two Anabaena species, Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 and Anabaena flos-aquae, were used in this study. Anabaena sp.

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