A FUTURE POWERED BY ALGAE?

There are lots of astonishing things that algae can do: they are a vegetable that doesn´t need fertilizers, irrigation or farmland; a source for bio-fuel that doesn’t compete with land crops; and a plant that grows and soaks up CO2 much faster than land plants. These (and many more) facts are not widely known; on the other hand, when presented in the media, nuance is lost and algae is featured as a solution to global issues like farmland scarcity, climate change and the search for sustainable energy.

Is it really that easy? What would that look like?

This project aims to share more specific knowledge by rendering fictive scenarios. As a method, hypothetical questions were posed and answered by researching and calculating the relevant data, and then visualizing it in animations. The different resulting images together slowly form a more differentiated picture of the potentials and limits of algae. And since this is a never-ending process, please add more questions you would like to see answered!

student:Ida Flik
project:microbes II
year:2017