Algae naturally produce oil. ______（請?zhí)钜痪?。）________
There’s just one snag — harvesting the oil from algae-filled water is prohibitively expensive. But researchers have come up with an effervescent solution: bubbles smaller than the width of a human hair can help reduce the costs of collecting algae oil.
So-called micro-bubbles are already used for water purification — they surround contaminants and float them out of the liquid. Similarly, in water containing algae, bubbles can float the algae to the surface for easy collection and processing.
The research builds on previous work that used micro-bubbles to grow algae more densely and thus increase production. This time, however, the researchers produced the fizziness with a new method that uses far less energy, and is cheaper to install. The study is in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering.
Although micro-bubbles improve algae harvesting in the lab, they still have to work at larger scales. The researchers are planning a pilot program for an algae biofuel plant, in the hope of making really green energy.
When it's processed, that oil can be turned into biofuel, an alternative energy source.
水藻天然可以產(chǎn)生油脂。當(dāng)這些油脂被加工后，可以轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樯锶剂?，一種能源替代物。但這里還有個問題——從充滿藻類的水體中富集這些油類造價太高。研究人員們已經(jīng)想出了一種氣泡提取法：比人類頭發(fā)的寬度還要小的氣泡能降低提取藻類油脂的造價。 所謂的微氣泡已經(jīng)用于水體純化上了——它們包圍著污染物并且漂浮在液體上。同樣地，在含有藻類的水體中，氣泡可包裹藻類浮在液體表面，這樣就容易收集并加工處理。 這項研究是基于之前的一項相關(guān)研究從而產(chǎn)生的，之前使用了微泡法培養(yǎng)藻類并富集它們，然后因此產(chǎn)量增加。然而，這次研究人員們制造出這種氣泡用了一種新的方法，耗能相對小一些，并且安裝的花費(fèi)也不高。該研究內(nèi)容已經(jīng)發(fā)表在《生物技術(shù)與生物工程》雜志上。 盡管微泡法培養(yǎng)可以在實驗室中促進(jìn)藻類生長，他們還必須使該項技術(shù)適應(yīng)更大規(guī)模的生產(chǎn)實踐才行。研究人員們正在計劃對開發(fā)藻類生物能源工廠適用的一個實驗項目，希望能制造出真正的綠色能源。