Comment on Hannah's Article

Hannah’s review of the article “UT Making a Big Bet on the Future of Algae” was informative and especially interesting because I had never heard of algae as an alternative source for fuel.  One thing that the review presented particularly well was why algae might soon make a good source of alternative energy.  Previously, it was too inefficient to grow it, but due to UT’s new vertical growth method, more algae can be produced in a smaller area.  Another well-presented part of Hannah’s review was that it included that algae may soon be as widespread as ethanol, in terms of alternate fuel use, which is becoming more and more a part of gasoline.  If algae and ethanol begin phasing out gasoline, powering things may become cheaper and would definitely be less harmful to the environment.  A final well-presented piece of Hannah’s review was why algae was chosen as a new potential fuel source as opposed to other plants: it grows more quickly and nearly anywhere, which makes it much more desirable than more fickle plants.  The review could have been made better by including how the algae was to be turned into a fuel that could be harnessed, since that was never made clear, but perhaps that is because scientists have not figured out how to efficiently turn algae into fuel for mass use yet.  Another thing the review could have improved on was its description of algae’s pharmaceutical benefits.  The review simply states that algae have pharmaceutical uses without elaborating on what these are or how this is important.  Overall, the review was very good and taught me a lot about a subject that I had never heard of before.  The thing that most impressed me from the review was that they have discovered how to grow algae vertically in a 15,000 gallon tank.  I know from my personal experience, working on a lake, that algae typically grows only near the surface, and would thus be impractical to try and farm conventionally.  This new method manages to grow algae deep in water and thus creates a more viable option to grow algae in large quantities.  If this research pans out, it could be a huge benefit to our fuel costs as well as to the environment.