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Microalgae – A Major Alternative Source of Biofuel
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Ms. Supriya Bharte*
Email: supriya.bharte@yahoo.com
Global warming is not a conqueror to kneel before, but a challenge to rise to. Joe Lieberman.
The ever-increasing air pollution is a well-known fact, which occurs due to various reasons. Most of these reasons are a result of human activities like burning of fossil fuels, industrialization, urbanization, deforestation, use of appliances and devices giving out harmful gases. Though numerous gases constitute the greenhouse gases, it is carbon dioxide which is considered the greatest challenge, and the burden of carbon dioxide reduction lies completely on plants and trees by photosynthesis, and, it becomes more difficult due to increasing deforestation taking place for human development. A classic and
very recent example of this is the cutting down of thousands of trees at Aarey in Mumbai for the Metro shed. Another example was an uncontrollable fire in the jungles of Amazon, which are considered, the lungs of our planet. At such a pace, we, as humans are planning our own destruction in the guise of development. It is high time, we focus on cleaning the environment with fresh air to breath for future generations. This is where, microalgae come toourrescue,withseveralbenefitsinthefood, feed and fuel industry.
Microalgae grows faster than plants and trees, captures harmful carbon dioxide from the environment, can be grown on sewage and marshy waters, helps in reducing the harmful chemical load from the wastewater. They are a great source of proteins, which
* Ms. Supriya Bharte, PhD Scholar from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Maharashtra, is pursuing her research on “Enhancement of Biofuel Production from Microalgae”. Her popular science story entitled “Microalgae - A Major Alternative Source of Biofuel” has been selected for AWSAR Award.