Algae is used for making fertilizers and is used in farmlands. But did you know that it can power your vehicles and can be used as an energy source at homes?

Algae fuel or algal biofuel is an alternative to fossil fuel that uses algae as its source of natural deposits.

Like fossil fuel, algae fuel releases CO2 when burnt, but unlike fossil fuel, algae fuel and other biofuels only release CO2 recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the algae or plant grew. The energy crisis and the world food crisis have ignited interest in algaculture (farming algae) for making biodiesel and other biofuels using land unsuitable for agriculture. Among algal fuels' attractive characteristics are that they can be grown with minimal impact on fresh water resources, can be produced using saline and wastewater, have a high flash point, and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled

One species of algae in particular, sugar kelp (Laminaria saccharina), is exciting scientists from Norway. It grows prolifically along the country?s coasts and, as its name suggests, contains a lot of energy—about three times as much sugar as sugar beet. That makes it suitable for turning into food and fuel

In another example,  the algae are sown onto ropes. When miniature plants (sporophytes) have been formed, they sink and are able to grow in the sea. After about six months, when they algae have grown on the ropes, they are harvested and processed on land through bio-refining processes.

Advantages:-

Algae biofuels don?t need much space to produce the same amount of energy.  

Algae biofuels dont need good arable land to grow on.  Otherwise unusable rocky land or deserts are fine for growing algae biofuels.  

Algae biofuels don?t need clean water – they do just fine on wastewater

The algae used for biofuels are quick-growing.  The mass of algae can double in size within 24 hours in the right conditions or even quicker than this. 

Source

http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/20/algae-power-our-world/

www.wikipedia.org