Abstract

Car companies these days are always talking about how their engines are so efficient, effective, and overall, blow the other competitors out of the water. However, such companies are actually having a negative impact on the environment. Hence, the concept of biofuel that has been created using algae. Biofuel is fuel made from biological masses and components, which takes far less time to create than the geologic processes involved in fossil fuels and things of that matter. For our project, we wanted to create biofuel using heterotrophic fermentation across three different mediums: Porphyridium cruentum (red algae), Nannochloropsis oculata (green algae), and Isochrysis galbana (brown algae) and using three different sugars for each type: sucrose, fructose, and glucose. By testing each type with its corresponding fermentation for ethanol levels, we were able to determine whether it could be sustainable for biofuel. The results show that grren algae showed the most growth over all of the other types, leading to a higher ethanol level. When we weighed our algae each week, green algae showed the most growth, then red algae, and then brown algae. Green algae started to form mold in the middle of the process. This added to our mass, and the prongs in our question, but it also affected our results. In the end, Nannochloropsis oculata is the best algae that can be used for ethanol (biofuel) using heterotrophic fermentation.