1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Hope is Green - can algae save the world?

July 21, 2024

Using algae to solve humanity’s most pressing problems – that’s the ambitious aim of a team of researchers from Germany. After all, algae are posessed of staggering superpowers: for example, the ability to bind CO2. Algae can also be used to make plastic substitutes and even medication.

https://p.dw.com/p/4dMEZ

For a research project called “Waste to value”, Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences biologist Michael Lakatos and his team are investigating the potential uses of microalgae. Some species form limestone, which could be used to make bio-cement – thereby reducing CO₂. Other forms of algae could serve as a biologically-based plastic substitute. Yet others could produce edible dyes – using sunlight and CO₂. The researchers are traveling the world in search of especially talented algae and bacteria.

The filmmakers accompany the team members for almost a year – even following them into a Spanish cave used to emulate life on Mars. After all, algae could have many potential uses in space, including as a foodstuff for astronauts.
 

Skip next section About the show

About the show

DW DocFilm Sendungslogo Composite

DocFilm

Exciting stories, a wide variety of topics, fascinating pictures: every day, half or three-quarters of an hour of carefully researched background reports from the worlds of politics, business, science, culture, nature, history, lifestyle and sport.