Algae can help reduce the burden of carbon
It is now clear that it is no longer possible to tackle climate change simply by reducing carbon emissions from vehicles. Scientists believe that Algae can play a significant role in reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
At the very beginning, the earth was a hot piece filled with poisonous gas. There were no signs of life. Blue algae or Cyanobacteria changed that situation. As a microbiologist, Moritz Koch is researching this particular genus of algae.
According to him, “We live in a world where there is oxygen in the atmosphere – the so-called ‘Great Oxygenation Event’ has contributed to this transformation. Today’s living world got shaped by the fact that cyanobacteria began to produce oxygen millions of years ago. “
Cyanobacteria are tiny micro-allergens. On the other hand, Macro Algae floated in the sea and came to the beach. Many people call it algae.
As a marine ecologist, Mar Fernandez-Mendes said, “Algae are actually like marine plants. Like the plants above the soil, they also carry out photosynthesis. It absorbs carbon dioxide and converts it into the sunlight. “
Mar Fernandez-Mendes is researching how algae bind carbon and affect the whole seafood chain. Explaining the matter, he said, “When an alga absorbs carbon from the oceans, the oceans immediately absorb carbon from the atmosphere to make up for that deficiency. In other words, when something is removed, the atmosphere fills it up in the interest of maintaining balance. “
“Marine algae absorb one-fourth to one-third of global carbon emissions each year. Even if it is not in the sea, all the algae do that. Whatever the use of that algae, carbon got caught when it is cultivated,” Fernandez-Mendes added.
People have been using Algae for thousands of years. Indigenous peoples of America and East Asia were the first to cultivate algae. Even the oldest Japanese poems mention algae.
The Irish ‘Kernpeltang’ algae are used worldwide as a food additive called ‘Carrageen’. Algae was used as an alternative food during the Great Famine of 1840 in that country.
At present, most of the algae are farming in Asia. This ingredient gets used in cooking. Its application gets seen in toothpaste, cosmetics and medicines. These products contain carbon during algae cultivation, but reducing greenhouse gas emissions has not yet been the primary goal of such agriculture.
This time, the situation may change since using algae as animal food, making fertilizer, and organic plastics also reduces the harmful carbon emissions of various industries. That is, carbon emissions got reduced.
For example, let us talk about plastic. Some varieties of Algae produce an organic plastic called PHB. This material can be an alternative to polypropylene, the second major component of conventional plastics. Moritz and other researchers have increased its production through a groundbreaking study by transforming blue-green micro-algae or cyanobacteria.
Moritz Koch said, “By using some metabolic engineering process, we have been able to increase production by 10 percent to 80 percent. We have created bacteria in organic plastics that are actually made up of organic plastics.
“Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) decomposes quickly as waste and does not emit any harmful substances into the environment like other organic plastics. That algae production infrastructure is also ready. In fact, it is possible to produce a wide variety of cyanobacteria using current technology. Not only edible ingredients like spirulina but also organic plastics can be produced in this way,” Koch added.
Macro-algae can also cultivate using water-based farming methods. A special kind of allergy called Asparagopsis taxiformi has wonderful properties. Adding it to animal feed can reduce methane emissions by up to 82% due to cattle.
Methane is produced in the stomach of cattle during digestion. Then the gas escapes from the body of the animal. The specific properties of this red-colored algae probably prevent that gas from forming from the beginning.
