The Correlation between Various Algal Growth Media and Biofuel Production

Abstract

Algal biofuel holds promise for being a practical renewable energy source, but current algal growth media and mechanisms are too inefficient to make biofuel economically viable. To determine which nutrients increase the production of algal biofuel the most, a study was constructed to test the hypothesis that an increase in nitrogen containing compounds in solution with algae will have a higher growth rate than algae in solution with excess sodium bicarbonate or phosphorous by measuring the growth of algae in each growth medium. The collected data supports the hypothesis, and though there are areas where inaccuracies could have adversely affected the data, the results provide an insight into one way to make algal biofuels more practical.