The Ultimate Green, Renewable Fuel (and Food): Algae, Possibly

Across the U.S., researchers, startup companies and investors are exploring the potential of creating large amounts of green, renewable fuel from the humblest of sources: algae.

If you think the energy/food potential for hemp is underutilized, wait’ll you get a gander at algae. This little microorganism really packs a punch.

According to The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong (2006, Harmony Books) (I highly recommend it, by the way — it’s packed with fascinating information and weird insights), algae breathes out more oxygen than all the world’s land-based plants and trees combined. Certain types of algae also deliver a whopping amount of protein and nutrients per farmed acre (20 times more than soy beans, in the case of spirulina).

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It’s the energy potential, minus the downsides of corn-based ethanol, though, that’s currently got many projects going full-steam ahead. San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, for example, recently announced it had successfully produced a 91 octane fuel using only carbon dioxide, sunlight and algae. And the Cambridge, Massachusetts firm GreenFuel Technologies Corp. expects to achieve commercially viable production of algae-based biofuel (at least 247 acres’ worth) in the “next few years.” It’s already set up pilot operations at six locations in Massachusetts, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and New York.

Less than two months ago, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin announced they had created a new “super” variety of fuel-producing algae by inserting the cellulose-making genes of a non-photosynthesizing bacteria into cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

Where will it all lead? While commercial production of algae-based fuel isn’t upon us yet, a new research-trade organization, the Algal Biomass Organization, recently went into full swing. It’s planning its second-ever Algae Biomass Summit this coming October in Seattle.

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