Its heavy products fall to the ocean floor with proportions of its alkenone molecules varying with sea surface temperatures - useful for documenting past changes.
Previously its thick, greasy product did not attract traditional biofuel researchers looking for lighter products usually used in biodiesel. Also gas chromatography needed to be run for a further hour than usual, beyond the biodiesel useful triglyceride FAMEs fraction, to reveal the alkenone fraction.
As a large fat molecule it has no direct uses. But the 2005 Nobel Prize for Chemistry technique - olefin metathesis - can readily split these molecules giving products similar to those in jet fuels.
Already produced as fish food in large quantities, although not sufficiently cheaply yet, "Isochrysis" has another useful feature. Unlike some other algal species its oily production also synchronises with its rapid growth. Very useful. We may hear more of these interesting algae.
Source: clean-energy-technologies.blogspot.com
