CO2 ApplicationsCrude oil is becoming scarce and CO2 emissions must fall. In the future, algae will help. As a highly efficient carbon-dioxide recoverer, they can even convert greenhouse gas into valuable bio-oil. But carbon dioxide can also be used to promote the growth of vegetables.

Without carbon dioxide, there would be no plant life, because in order to grow, plants need CO₂ as well as light for photosynthesis. This biological law is the foundation for the joint venture OCAP (Organic CO₂ for Assimilation by Plants) that Linde has begun in the Netherlands with the Volker-Wessels construction company. Instead of "aerating" the country's many greenhouses with CO₂ from gas heaters in order to promote the growth of tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, OCAP supplies greenhouses between Rotterdam and Amsterdam with carbon dioxide that a Shell refinery near Rotterdam had previously emitted into the atmosphere.

Even gaseous raw materials such as climate-damaging carbon dioxide can be used appropriately thanks to custom-tailored microorganisms: modified algae cells convert CO₂, for example, that is captured from industrial emissions, into "green" crude oil. Other algae strains generate bioethanol from it. Large-scale algae farms could produce this important industrial raw material in large quantities. Bioethanol, for example, can be used to fuel motor vehicles.