Picture this. You're driving on a highway with the top down on your convertible, the wind blowing at your hair. When suddenly—you hear a tiny alarm. Whoops! You forgot to fill up the tank again.
Ah well. You pull up to the "gas" station, unscrew your gas cap, and fill up your car with clean, green algal biofuel. Breathe in the sweet smell of a renewable resource and forget the noxious smell of gasoline.
This isn't quite reality, but it's not too far off from the dreams of scientists that are developing ways to extract oil from algae and turn it into fuels such as biodiesel, biogasoline, and even jet fuel (Leavin' on a jet plane is a lot easier when you're being nice to the Earth). Algae are fairly simple to grow, requiring sunlight and water, and produce an environmentally friendly source of energy—no climate change-inducing fossil fuels.
So what's stopping your local gas station from stocking algae byproducts? The main hurdle isn't making these fuels. That's been done. It's how to make these fuels affordably and in mass quantity. Algae need lots of light to perform photosynthesis, and a lot of water to live in. In addition, the perfect nutrient conditions have yet to be established for maximal yield of the green stuff. After growing the algae, the oil must be extracted and then refined and processed into different types. Science needs to figure out how to make this feasible and profitable.
We're probably a good 20-30 years away from seeing this reality, but both the government and private companies have a stake in the venture. The US Department of Energy, for example, is funding grants for projects that aim at turning these little green guys into gas.
Algae have also been touted as the solution to rising climate temperatures caused by an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Since algae use carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis, they can be used to suck the excess carbon dioxide right out of the air. You might ask yourself why we can't just use plants for this process. Well, we can. But, algae are smaller, and they don't take up land resources to grow. You could grow them in a big tub o' water.