Added: 11.05.2010 13:09
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Reports of algae productivity sometimes unclear

Sometimes research results are not reported in a way that would clearly state what was measured and how.

What?
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated in their report that there are problems in reports that is not always clear is measurement done in weight of biomass or only the organic fraction. This is important in case of algae grown in saline condition, where 40 % of biomass can be inorganic salt with some species. Similar problem can be seen with research for manufacturing algal biodiesel. Usually the total content of lipids is measured and reports fail to mention how much of it can be extracted and used for manufacturing biodiesel.

Also the experiments are usually performed in laboratory under optimal conditions for short period of time and afterwards extrapolated in larger scale situation. These kinds of results are not accurate enough to be anything more then just indicators, not actual accurate data.

These results are many times too optimistic. This raises people’s hopes for algal biofuels. On the other hand it causes distrust and doubt among those who are well informed.

Who and Why?
Reporting and research is done by scientists, but it is suspected that some of them might not be completely honest with their reports to gain commercial advantage or for funding. It is said that part of the data is “tainted by commercial and marketing benefits”. This makes evaluating productivity of algae cultivations much more difficult while inspecting current available data.

References:

FAO. 2009. Algae-based biofuels. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Rome, Italy.

Research question: Productivity reports of algae are not always clearly stating what was measured and how.

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