Algae are one of the oldest forms of life on Earth and currently one of the great bets for the production of biofuels. In addition to their high productivity observed in the laboratory, they need no clean water or fertilizers to develop and neither do they compete for land used to grow food crops. Interest in the subject in Brazil has been growing and it has the support of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CNPq), which is going to invest R$ 4.5 million over 2 years in 11 projects, the objective of which is to investigate the potential that algae have for producing biodiesel. The projects were selected from among the 63 presented by researchers from all overBrazil in response to a public bid notice issued in 2008. The first problem to be overcome by the researchers from Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Goiás and São Paulo who were chosen will be to produce fuel from algae cheaply.
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