Basic Introduction Of Algae

Alga's are the simplest plants in their structure, although they vary in their sizes, some can be only seen through microscope (micro-organism). Alga's have spores & don't have seeds as most of the land plants do.

Alga's are the oldest known plants/protists on earth, the earliest recording goes back over 900 million years. Alga's do not have real roots, stems or leaves like land plants do.

There are different types of phylum's of alga's, but there are three main categories:

• Brown algae
• Green algae -> have spores, are one celled, the reproductive unit is capable of giving rise to a new individual cell without sexual fusion
• Red algae

Their pigmentation is either red, brown or green.
We are looking at green algae:

• Green algae has a noticeable pigmentation that is green chlorophyll which captures light energy for food making process.

Green alga's have a similar life-cycles, pigments, stored food supplies like land plants. There are three main steps for the production of algae, the last step of the algae is the main one where you can start extracting oil.

• uni-cellar ( 1st step)
• colonies (2nd step)
• multi-cellular  (3rd step) from this step onwards you can extract oil.