what is the common algae type being harvested and grown for biofuel?

There are two key problems.

Firstly the change in use of arable land to biodiesel agriculture is creating an unholy competition between food for people, and "food" for cars, which has resulted in huge hikes in the price of food crops such as wheat, causing increasing starvation and poverty globally.

Secondly even if ALL global land use were turned over to biodiesel production, it would still be nowhere near enough. Presently 20% of US argricultural land is only producing enough biofuel for 2% of vehicles.

(source and reference http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worse-than-fossil-fuel/)

So when will people wake up to this?
Checked out wiki on algae as suggested, turned up this "However, according to one 2007 study, algae-based biofuel will not be commercially viable until fuel prices exceed 0/barrel" – which of course doesn’t mean you are wrong. It just means that fuel will be ten times the present price IF a viable strain can be produced.
While scrap oil conversion into biofuel is just great, it would provide less than 0.3% of the fuel needed if all of it was used for fuel.
Just a thought Derek on this Algae stuff. Whatever claim is made algae-producing oil, the laws of physics are inviolate. Algae like any other plant fixes energy through photosynthesis which is essentially powered by the sun, and therefore subject to the 1kw/m^2 rule x process efficiency. The 4000-10000x as good as other biofuel looks on surface inspection to be little more than hype, comparing the top google search (which smacks of MLM) with the more balanced wiki entry.
@ Molly – same deal as chipfat. There are some good sources which can be converted from waste, but the volume of waste is nowhere near enough to solve the problem on its own. When have to start turning over land-use you hit exactly the same trouble.

"Battelle’s recent report entitled, "Near Term U.S. Biomass Potential", looked at a scenario for producing 50 billion gallons of ethanol per year from cellulosic biomass. "The primary biomass supply would consist of waste biomass streams plus the production of energy crops." The waste stream was estimated to contribute 40-50% of the supply. The report concluded that the expansion of biomass supplies needed to achieve this level of production "would not result in large impacts on the agricultural system." Beyond this level of production, "dedicated energy crops would be required with implications for the cost of cropland and competition with food crops."

http://www.harvestcleanenergy.org/enews/enews_0505/enews_0505_Cellulosic_Ethanol.htm

Bohemian, what you post is actually a consequence of the competition between land to be used for food or oil. In the first instance land upon which food production was not profitable becomes profitable for the first time. That is how it begins, but not where it ends.

I herd about this online and I though it would be really cool for my science fair. If only I had the slightest idea on how to do it. I found this book called, ‘Making Biodiesel from Algae at Home.’ You can ONLY buy it on the website and I just wanted to know some stuff like how long does it take and how much money before I spend . If anyone knows you’d REALLY be helping me out. Thank You

i need some help with sources for:

how long would it generally take for algae (microalgae) to make oil?

Im looking for a place or online site somewhere where I can purchase an algal strain for creating biodiesel. I’ve looked at two different strains Chlorella protothecoides and Dunaliella Salina but any algae strain that can produce biodiesel and has a relatively high lipid content would be ideal. Thanks in Advance.

To me, it seems that biodiesel is a great solution to petrol. It’s clean, cheaper than petroldiesel, and completely renewable. And to make things even better, if we used algae grown in marginal lands (desert), 0.3% of the surface of America could supply our energy needs.

So, it seems too good to be true. What are the inconveniences to a pure biodiesel or a biodiesel-electric hybrid solution?

A Promising Feedstock
Algae have turned out to be the most promising feedstock for producing biodiesel among all other feedstock available and being experimented with. This renewable energy feedstock has drawn worldwide attention as an economic source for biodiesel that can substitute petroleum diesel as engine fuel, a necessity warranted by fast diminishing fossil fuel reserves and global oil crisis. The algae are more easily available and can produce a high yield of biodiesel. As algae can be grown in an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, it helps in reducing carbon dioxide in the air and consequently the greenhouse effect is reduced. Emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from use of fossil fuel is the greatest contributor to global warming and the damaging changes in the earth’s climactic patterns.

Algae Cultivation
Sunlight and carbon dioxide are the two basic components required by the algal plants for their growth. Algae like the plants do photosynthesis from the solar energy. In this biochemical process, the solar energy gets converted to chemical energy. Chemical reactions like transformation of nitrogen to amino acids for protein synthesis and sugar formation are caused by the chemical energy derived from photosynthesis. Algae cultivation does not need arable land and can be done in open ponds which can supply the required inputs for algae to grow, viz. sunlight, carbon dioxide and water. What is needed is to increase artificially the supply of carbon dioxide as there is not enough of the gas in an open pond for quick growth of algae. Algae can also be grown in controlled environment where the supply of inputs can be regulated as per requirements. One example is the photobioreactors that artificially create a controlled environment not possible in an open pond. Cost of photobioreactors is high but the yield of algae is also much higher than in a pond. The cost is thus compensated in the long run. Another point of concern is the high protection required for growing the algae of the specific strains suitable for producing biodiesel. There remains a chance of the algae for biodiesel getting contaminated by other algae species. Even then harvesting algae in photobioreactors for getting biodiesel is a popular method of algae cultivation. In the photobioreactors, the algae can either be grown in batches or in a continuous manner. While a photobioreactor for continuous algal growth has to be always maintained, a batch photobioreactor is supplied with nutrients and seeds of algae only till the harvesting of the batch are complete. Photobioreactors can be of different types like plastic tubes, sleeves or bags, tanks and glass tubes.

Home-grown Algae
Specific strains of algae for biodiesel can be grown at home. The algae culture for this purpose has to be put in a container to be filled with bubble stones normally used in an aquarium. The circulation needed by the algae to grow comes from the bubble stones. Other inputs required are carbon dioxide, light and nutrients in the form of manure or fertilizer. Right temperature has to be maintained depending on the species of algae. The lighting sources can be natural sunlight, fluorescent lights or LED.

More articles:
History of biodiesel – Biodiesel: Fundamentals

Oils
Biodiesel can be produced from many types of vegetable oils. The ones most commonly used are soybean and rapeseed oils. In the United States, 90% of biodiesel is produced from soybean oil. It can also be produced from crops such as Jatropha, field penny cress, sunflower, palm oil, mustard, etc. Other sources for biodiesel include Waste Vegetable Oil, animal fats like lard, yellow grease and tallow. Biodiesel can also be made from the byproducts derived in the process of making Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil.

Another important economical source for production of biodiesel is algae. Algae for producing oil for biodiesel can be sourced cheaply from sewage wastes thus obviating the need for land which can be utilized for growing food. Many people consider waste vegetable oil to be the most ideal source for production of biodiesel. But the volume of biodiesel required to be produced to meet the demands of the transportation and household sectors is too large to be met with the inadequate supply of waste vegetable oil. Similarly inadequate is the supply of animal fat to produce biodiesel. Use of petroleum diesel can however be reduced to some extent by using discarded animal fat to produce biodiesel. Discarded chicken fat that can be procured from local poultry firms can be a viable source for biodiesel. Around 3 million gallons of biodiesel can be manufactured from nearly one billion kg of chicken fat and this source is utilized by some plants in USA

Not Enough to Replace Fossil Fuel
To produce soybean and animal fat in a scale than can produce enough biodiesel to substitute petroleum diesel as fuel is practically not possible. The enormous quantity of vegetable oils required to be produced towards making biodiesel would need very large scale farming with use of pesticides and fertilizers. People all over the world might object to such large scale diversion of agricultural land for producing vegetable oilseeds instead of food cultivation. As per the estimates of the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy, consumption of diesel as engine and heating fuel is around 160 million tonnes in USA. Production of vegetable oils and animal fat in the country is estimated to be around 11 million tonnes and 5.3 million tonnes respectively that indicate the inadequacy of the production of these substances to produce biodiesel in sufficient volume to replace petroleum diesel.

From Algae
To produce biodiesel from soybean oil to meet the estimated consumption in USA of 160 million tonnes of fuel would require the total cultivable land of the country. This impractical prospect can be eliminated by the alternative option of using algae from sewage wastes that is economical and does not require much land. According to the estimate of the Department of Energy, to meet this fuel need, only 15000 square miles of land is required for growing algae. Algae can be grown in arid lands including in desert and marine conditions and can yield more oil for biodiesel than other plants. The energy yielded by algae per acre is estimated to be 30 times more than crops grown on land like soybean.

More articles:
Biodiesel From Algae – History Of Biodiesel