Algae - it's green, it's slimy, it could be the answer to the world's growing fuel shortage.

And the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (BIOS) is on the cutting edge of algal biofuels research

Jessica Dean, a senior at Oregon State University is conducting research along this vein at BIOS.

"My interest in working with algae for the production of biodiesel at BIOS coincides with the current dilemma of limited resources," Miss Dean told The Royal Gazette.

"We need to look at alternative ways to fuel our nations without tapping into our feedstock as other biofuels have.

"Algae is a cheaper and more efficient way to go, as it can be produced rapidly and remains an abundant organism on our planet. Not to mention the use of algae for the production of biodiesel needs a minuscule amount of land in comparison to the other well known biofuels."

Miss Dean is looking at the suitability of different algal strains routinely used to produce biodiesel.

She is attempting to identify and characterise algae from Bermuda and the Sargasso Sea that can be used to produce biodiesel.

BIOS education director Gerry Plumley recently spoke locally at a town hall meeting about the use of algae to produce biofuels.

The event was part of a series of community meetings on energy hosted by the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce.

"There is a fuel shortage," Dr. Plumley told The Royal Gazette. "I believe peak oil has come and gone. We have done a terrible job with this experiment we have been doing.

"To take millions of years worth of petroleum and burn it within a very short time has caused great damage to the environment. That is one side of the equation. The other side is that no one wants to give up their fancy cars and airconditioners and nice comfy lifestyles."

He said biofuels are one possible solution, but not the only one. Wind in certain areas, solar power and natural gas are other alternatives.

"Natural gas may actually be a better alternative, because we have a lot of that," he said. "It is good, but it is such an experiment.

"It is cleaner and better than diesel, but it is a continuation of the same cycle."

Dr. Plumley said that nuclear power was another option, but then there was the problem of disposing of the waste.

Using cooking fat to make fuel has been another proposed solution. But there are about a million gallons of cooking fat in Bermuda, and Belco uses about forty times this in a year.

"A million gallons of cooking fuel is not going to go very far to keep Belco running," said Dr. Plumley. Plus, there are a number of other fuels on the island needed including jet fuel for the airport.

"So you really come down to things like solar power," he said. "Biofuels are basically solar.

"You are basically taking the Co2 that is in the atmosphere and sequestering that in the algae.

"The algae make lipids, and the lipids make diesel. The diesel releases the Co2 back into the atmosphere. So you have eliminated one thing – you are no longer pumping as much petroleum or natural gas out of the ground."

He said most countries are trying to go renewable in some way.

"We don't have to replace everything we have," he said. "The question is how much do we have to go renewable.

"Do we continue to go with the systems that are there, the pipes and land based systems; or do we do something offshore. If it is offshore then we have to worry about hurricanes or ships that often go aground. There are issues like that. Submerging them offshore is one possibility."

He said conservation helped with the fuel crisis, but ultimately countries needed another source of energy.

"Can we turn the entire Biostation off the power grid using biofuels?" he said. "If you try to make biofuel with anything other than algae the landmass requirements are much too high.

"Even with biofuel, the best estimates is that it would take 15 acres to run the Biostation. You know how big the Biostation is - 15 acres."

He said the details of algal farms haven't been worked out yet.

"The farms that exist now started out like ponds in your back yard," he said. "They quickly turned into cess pools."

He said like any other type of plant, there are many different types of algae. Some are like weeds and proliferate quickly, while others take their time to grow.

"In this case, the weedy types tend not to have good lipid content. Others, because of the way they have been selected, have very high lipid content.

"They don't grow well in outdoor ponds. So they would have to be in more enclosed ponds.

He said the best algae in the world for this process are about half lipids.

"There would probably be a series of tubes of clear plexiglass. You would have miles and miles of tubes that loop around."

He said Co2 would need to be pumped through the tubes. This is because, like all plants, algae require water, carbon dioxide, and nutrients for photosynthesis.

"So if you have to have a lot of Co2 for the plants to grow, why not take the exhaust from a place like Belco, and bubble it through the system," said Dr. Plumley.

"That way, the Co2 is being turned into biodiesel. You are going to turn around and burn the biodiesel and release the Co2 again, but at least you have gotten one more use out of it before it is released.

"We are trying to rethink the whole process, and take advantage of what we have," said Dr. Plumley. "By 'we' I mean the world in general, or oceanic islands."

Dr. Plumley said he was pleased that the government seemed interested in looking at the issue.