So guys, what do we think, is biodiesel algae the savior of alternative fuels?

16000 acres sounds awfully optimistic to me. 1 squre mile is 640 acres. Divide those into 16000 that makes 25 sqare miles of pond, that is a 5 m x 5 m square. I think that there are a few zeros missing here. G. S.

I love the idea of algae for biodiesel. Currently however I don't think there are any real viable ways of harvesting the oil or at least not on an individual level.

The thing I would really like to see is households being able to make their own fuel rather than being monopolized by big oil.

I think algea can be alternative to vegetable oil produced from crops or of tree origin

I will like to share that biodiesel production from algae is feasable but only on small scale but this may be expensive than biodiesel produced from tree origin oil like jatropa oil biodiesel.

The first problem I see with this technology is that people are trying to find the perfect algae to use before production. Nonsense, why waste ten years waiting for some lab to figure out what species to use when you can start experimenting now?

I would think that industries that produce milk and other bio products will have the best experience to deal with creating pure stocks. The problem is will patent holders hold the industry hostage as oil tech holders do now (the high price of drilling)?

Emergency government regulations may have to re-write patent laws so that innovation can occur without harming the public? In other words, if you break down on the highway, you will regrettfully pay for a tow bill? But you do not want a $10,000 tow bill that can occur under "free market conditions"?

It will have to be artificially created, and you can easily convert salt caverns to hold algae lakes? Pumps could theoretically pump algae through sunlight chambers and CO2 induction chambers in a "night day cycle"?

The ideal solution however would be for consumers to be able to maintain and grow their own fuels, in order to save the costs associated with transporting fuel all over the country, and to avoid price and market commodity trading practices that are hostile to the consumer and causing harm to the economy?

If consumers cannot grow their own fuels, then market regulations may require that price caps be put in place, no matter what fuel is used?

The amount from Michael Briggs University of New Hampshire was 15,000 square miles listed on paragraph 11

The amount in the article should have listed the amount as 15,000 square miles

If you want more information on biodiesel go to msn.com in the search put, Biodiesel from Algie and go to the resent study done by Michael Briggs from the University of New Hampshire, Physics Dept. It has all the information you will need to know about Biodiesel from Algie and more. There is also a company called Petrosun that has already began pond for the production of the Algie and they have found a way of harvesting the Algie without contaminating the Algie pond. This is a world of information on this subject…

I think still there are some challenges with this technology:

1) Output contains only 10% usable biomass rest is water. - Cost of water separation.
2) Drying the biomass
3) % oil content in Algae.
4) Continuous Availability of Sunlight and CO2

At this stage I still feel, the technology needs to reduce cost to make it commercially viable

The process has already started by petrosun and other companies and all studies show that the oil %'s are as high as 40% in some algie and that is still 20 to 30 percent more then what we are getting out of other bio substances. Sun light issues are all about location, I would believe that would be the last of thier problems after a location has been picked like texas or near by states. This seems to be the fuel of the future and we don't have to have OPEC and large companies like exxon or others choking us.
We should as a country be moving on this with great speed…

Has anybody ever given a thought to scotch broom? Here is a plant that will grow anywhere because it fixes its own nitrogen being a legume although inedible. It is an incredible producer of seed which causes it to spread wildly. Here in western Canada it is considered a noxious alien weed. It grows in gravel pits and places where the top soil has been removed. If it wasn't so bitter it would feed the masses. What's the oil content of the seed? Does any body know?
G. S.

It is gratifying to find that someone out there is doing due diligence on my article by locating and reading the UNH report. The number of acres needed to replace the entire transportation needs of the United States is indeed 15K vice 16K. I might point out that the UNH group was very conservative in their feasibility estimates.
My personal concept of mass production would, for security reasons, divide the plants into five hundred acre sites scattered all across the Gulf of Mexico shoreline.
This would minimize hurricane and terrorist threats.

Harvesting the oil from the biomass can be done by centrifuge, compression or you could just throw the dried mass into your stove and burn it for direct heat. On large scale, the only economically feasible approach, Royal Dutch Shell has been reported to be building (Maybe it's already built)a bio diesel plant in Hawaii. The intent being to extract the oil and ship it to Europe. That being said, one must conclude that Shell has already nailed the extraction method.

As for individual home production for personal use, I put together some numbers myself and, using my 2006 Ford Ranger P/U @ 18 mgp, 10,000 miles per year, I would need the UNH estimate based annual production of 2.7 acres of pond to keep my wheels turning. Prices vary around the planet, but here in Central Florida, USA, dirt costs about $50,000USD per acre. That's $135,000 up front just to have a place to build your pond.

I don't want to beat this one to death. Marine algal bio diesel does not seem feasible for small scale fuel needs. On a small scale, I am reminded of the Iowa farmer who powered his tractor on ethanol which he got from converting part of his corn crop thru fermentation. It's relatively easy and the leftover mash makes excellent cattle feed. He is reported to have the happiest livestock in the state!
Another small consumer I read about many years ago was a village in India which used a methane producing reactor to power a converted gasoline electric generator. For feedstock, they used cow dung which was always in plentiful supply…. everywhere. My oldest son wanted to go completely "green", raising organic veggies and using a bio mass methane reactor to fuel his own generator. Asked where he would get the feed stock he replied: "Have you ever considered the amount of usable waste created daily by two adults and four growing children?"
Small, isolated communities around the world would benefit greatly from having self produced electricity. I am afraid that home size energy plants will have to be developed by individual home based entrepreneurs. Go for it!

I like your train of thought. Rattles my aging cage! Some thoughts of my own.
1. High yielding marine algae species used in the UNH study were sent to the University of Hawaii for permanent storage. Apparently, Royal Dutch Shell likes that location as they are building a BD plant there.
2. Marine algal sourced BD is NOT economically feasible due to the need to provide sealed photo reactors at a cost cheaper than petroleum refineries. However, remember that "If we can put a man on the moon, we can do anything!"
3. Salt caverns? Fascinating! where would one get the energy to heat them? (Apparently, studies have shown that our pet algae consume energy on cold nights to maintain their own viability. If my memory serves me right, one of the prime features of the Kansas caverns is their constant low temperature?

At this point, I have no realistic answers… just more questions. Bummer! Still, there are some latent techie nerds out there. I can smell them here on this blog. I hope someone is actively trying to meld all this thinking into realistic solutions. Go for it, neighbors! Go for it.

Sam,
Your point is valid but only if there was a shortage of algae. I doubt there is a single pond owner that would object to your cleaning their pond for them.

Folks check out the Mcgyan process videos and tell me your thoughts.

http://www.sartec.com/mcgyan.html

Why does everyone think we need to dry the algae? What would happen if the algae was forced through a screen small enough to seperate the oil using water pressure???

I hope Sartec starts with recycling their own schools WVO and fuels their busses with it.

Let's take a look at a practical and integrated approach.

The NREL and UNH reports are good sources of information. Additioanl downside factors are viscosity (stated in the reports), fuel contamination and shelf life. These can be overcome technically through additives and distribution factors such as sourcing production near users.

Algal biodiesel should be considered as one slice of the solution pie and combined with high cost emission mitigation processes necessary to make the traditional fossil fuel engergy conversion methods more environmentally sound. Several examples of algae reactors being used at coal fired power stations to capture CO2/NOx/SOx are in development. These applications would reduce greenhouse gases at competitive costs to sequestering and SCR removal. Combined with Biodiesel production the costs may be more competitive. Additionally the waste heat produced at a power station could be channeled to make the reactors more efficient. Co-location at power plants also has a minor but measurable advantage of reducing transmission losses for the power used in the production process. Keep in mind that excess stocks of product could be co-fired in the boilers of these power plants.

We haven't spoke much yet about genetic engineering of the specific algae strains. This as mentioned earlier is a follow-on inductry generating aspect that is not immediately necessary, but presents future growth and competitive grist for the industrial mill. In short there are ways to drive competitiion through efficiency improvements creating a competitive and long lived industrial growth model.

When considering a solution path for national security, the environment, and the economy it may be advantageous to look at a more integrated and wholistic integration of serval technologies and needs. Seems like producing Bio-diesel while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and processing waste products may have a combined net positive energy and economic effect.

G Schmidt is right…………..Before you go overboard on algae (Like the government has on corn) You need to seriously look at scotch broom !!!!! the Fluorocarbon content is so hi in scotch broom it burns green….. throwing it on a brush fire is literally like adding Gasoline…….. And it grows were nothing else will….. Or is that just to obvious???…. I guess it is not challenging enough…

If all you bloggers are so smart, why are no government, of any country listening to you.
File a patent, do something, not just talk as old women,"old saying".

I am a chemist, well known in the industry, and it is not as easy as you think to get all the approvals,
and the manufacturing rights.

It is really easy to drill, clean and refine, and then sell.Period

Hey, I'm struggling to just hang on to any ray of hope. I'm just barely hanging in there with my small southern california trucking business. Petro-diesel prices are killing my will to stay in business. And I'm slowly loosing hope, of finding an honest affordable supplier of bio-oil.

Yes, algae is the only way to make save our economy without running a serious risk of a "transportation induced" famine by using food crops to make more profitable biofuels. Or, generating mass quantities of REALLY bad pollution (some of the aldehyde group) by moving to ethanol instead of biodiesel.

Besides, I know how to grow and process into biofuels aprox. 2,500 tons of algae per day on 800 acres anywhere between the 40th parallel north and south of the equator. As latitude increases, production drops off rapidly above 40 deg. latitude because of the seriously abbreviated photoperiod during the winter months. If you've got the funding, I have the technologies. I've been working on this exact issue for the past 8 years.

Here in south Alabama we are already doing research on algae for fuel. The Marine lab on Dalhpin Island and Earch Clean Technologies have come up with a viable family of algae and a way to economily produce it. The only problem that I am seeing in bio diesel production is the influx of big money. These people, shell oil for example that recently got all the prof's at Alburn Univ. to sell out to them for big bucks and now will not talk to anyone about what they are going to do. Sure everyone has the right to make what they can, when they can, but does anyone anymore really think of there fellow man? I sure am not seeing it here, its money, money , money and thats it. Shame on all of them. People can line there own pockets at the same time as they can share information critical to producing oil, there really is enough to go around. The oil produced from the sonification of algae works, it works real good. The use of animal wastes as well as human wastes makes it even better. They algae the has been studied and found to be best suited for oil production, when fed nitrogen, via chicken manure, doubles its mass every fourty minutes…think about it, it will work if we just stop the greed!!!!!!! Jim, ps, yes I produce bio diesel from waste cooking oil now, its getting real had to come by because of the money people gathering it up….

I hear you loud and clear. I drive shuttle for Orlando Airport supporting three counties. I hear a lot of chatter from my passengers about the high price of fuel (Gasoline) but very little about what to do about it.

Some of my passengers, feeling, I guess, that as a professional driver, I ought to know something they don't, have asked me for my opinion. So, I tell them about all the chatter we are sharing here and my own research relating to the UNH report.

Interesting enough, several of my passengers have husbands who drive professionally or are in contracting using diesel trucks and they have shared with me their husband's approach and F150 (or larger) Ford diesel P/U.

Briefly, what they have done is set up some fifty gallon drums in their garages and converted them into filters and holding tanks with a small 120 volt pump attached.
After regular work they make the rounds of several cooperating restaurants and gather their used cooking oil. I was not told what they paid, if anything at all.

The common feeling I got from these conversations, was that their hubbies were very well satisfied with the performance of used cooking oil (Think Mazola!).

While this approach will not provide enough fuel to satisfy all you OTR houn dawgs, it can take some of the pressure off some of you.

Anticipating the unasked question: Yes, I do have a class A CDL and I have used it. However, my wife's medical conditions require me to be home every night.

Finally, good buddy, the jerk that told you that trucking was going to be easy is not a friend.

Good luck. Sam I Am

Roger…

Thanks for the link. It will be next on my list of 2du.

Sam

I've been working on geting big money for 6 months. I'm about to begin the final steps to procure the funding (multiple tens of millions & more) from multiple sources. Does anybody in cyberspace who understands the realities of what we're all trying to do want to do some business? Let me know. msnyder2@earthlink.net

Sam,
You are welcome I think you will find the videos on youtube very interesting.

Search SARTEC or Mcgyan on youtube for the news interview with student that is being credited with this discovery. For you normal biodieselers, even if you are not interested in Algae you may find it interesting to know this is a contiuous system with a claimed massive reduction in time from normal methods.

Matt,
That is a little bit of a weird way of recruiting. Good luck with the Millions I hope you make a huge impact.

Guys

Just joining the debate. This is all very interesting and something I have been looking at from time to time when I can get on line with my slow dial up. Diesel is nearly $10 per gallon here in the UK, so you think you have it bad in the US!

For a country like the UK where the weather is changeable and land is at a premium, some form of enclosed solar/heat pump system would probably be a way forward with algae production (biodiesel from plants being a non starter in my humble opinion), pushing the algae heavy solution around clear tubing in a continuous cycle, introducing oxygen on the way, until it gets to saturation point where the algae/water is separated (by centrifuge?)and the oil extracted.

Obviously this is very simplistic and I am no bio-engineer, however I do have some experience in marine engineering and forestry (don't ask!) so my mind is sort of working in that direction.

The debate is indeed worth taking part in.

Well, if you are spending over $4000 a year on fuel, it is worth studying the issue to see if you can talk to a bank to get financing to grow your own fuel, even if it is 6 months worth of fuel over a year.

A European company is using transparent tubing (7"?) laying on top of a floor converted as a grow light (like a disco dance floor (Disco Duck to the Rescue!)). One would assume that CO2 is pumped through the tubing along with nutrients like an aquarium tank. The mature algae would simply be pushed out with high pressure? A drift?

With fiber optic technology you could do away with expensive transparent tubing (and the cleaning required), even to the point of using underground salt caverans (instead of storing oil, grow algae). Yes, I have a patent pending on that process. But what if I don't want to pay X amount per foot for the fiber optics, and want to make my own?

The patent system can pretty much tie your hands? Even with my patent, I will depend on hundreds of other people to make the idea work. Motorcycles are expensive, yet somehow they remind me of a lawnmower engine attached to lawn chair tubing (yes I am being sarcastic)?

The financial system is a pretty big experiment, and when it is not based on resources, do people wonder how things will turn out? There will be a lot of competition from wind and solar energy. It will boil down to what is economically better, either growing bio-fuels or mass producing power cells to store electrical energy from wind, solar and geo-thermal (including nuclear)?

I know algae can become the feedstock of the future. I do not have the technology to make it available today. For that reason I am starting with coconut oil this year and hope my business improves dramatically (profit wise)in 5 or 7 years when somebody comes up with a commercial solution to produce biodiesel from algae.

I am keeping an open eye on the likes of Green Star, Solazime, Valcent, Bioking, etc.

Here at SCIPIO Biofuels, ponds are passe. "Open air" is considered bad form, and the green glop that's overflowing from the Farmer's fields (potentially, your fields) isn't The Blob. The technology is here. I know. I've been dancing with this walrus since 2001. The sheer volume of high-end thought (a heap of it, not mine) that has gone into the analysis and design directed specifically at the control and manipulation of the physical dynamics almost all algaes use to procreate.
If you've ever seen the Disney film, Fantasia, there are many much more colorful, accurate and equally descriptive metaphors for the efforts and expenses put into the design and prototyping of a system to grow any species of algae that is truly scalable, quasi-sealed system specifically designed to maximize solar efficiency to roughly 150% as compared to sunlight falling on a pond with a depth to solar opacity of 12". The fact is that we are a "new" company. All that, and a million happy coincidences (Ok, Divine interventions) later, and yours would be SCIPIO Biofuels pilot plant (by request) number 3. There are possibilities literally everywhere. Send me an email, we'll talk.

Roger,

I've been asked once in each of the past two days to build pilot plants in Texas and Virginia. The Virgin Green Fund has had our requested system proposal for two months. At this point, the longer they take to tell me yes, means the bigger I'm hoping the yes gets. The big deal is pumping & harvesting. Our pumps don't scar the algae culture which eventually causes algae production to drop to near zero. Our harvester is a continuous type, size selective gizmo that (in theory) can do it all on less than 750 watts of power. If you would like to come to the SCIPIO Biofuels family, let's see what you can bring to the party. Hit me with an email if if if if if etc.

Matt

Bill,

I can't promise miracles or anything huge either for free or overnight. But, ethics are hammered on hard at SCIPIO Biofuels. Let's talk. If there's any way we can be helpful with your energy concerns, we've designed a system specifically with people like you in mind.

Matt
msnyder2@earthlink.net

Just found this forum and I have some questions.

Where can I find more info about BioDiesel from algae?

How do you process the algae?
How do you grow it correctly?
What does a 'Starter Kit' look like?
Is seaweed algae? What is it's potential for BioFuel?

Thanks for your time.

Scotch Broom is not as exciting as algae simply because algae is a simple organism that multiplies rapidly, and can be easily, and artificially grown. The problem is mass production, not theory.

The problem may be turning off some of the nightly entertainment shows, and start watching C-SPan. There is as much oil under Los Angelas, CA as there is in Saudi Arabia. There are even better places to get oil, and we need to throw the traitors out of Congress who are aiding and abetting Arabs who have declared a financial war on the United States.

You can grow algae artificially, and if the container you are growing it in becomes "solid" you can use a sonic cleaning methods in combination with pressure and rapid cooling to expel product.

I can't publish proprietary information on the net. Try me at this email, matt@scipiobiofuels.com .

Steve,

My system does not require arable land. Nor does it require fertilizers theat have the potential for competing with food crops. I've gone COMPLETELY outside the nornal streams of both food and fuel commerce so as to no affect anyone with SCIPIO's production of biofuels. How about your Scotch Broom?

Steve,

If clogging does become a problem, you're absolutely correct. But with max concentrations of under .5 grams per liter this should not be a problem. You sound like you want to invest in SCIPIO Biofuels. Take a look http://www.scipiobiofuels.com .The site is still under construction but the 1st and 2nd generation systems design work is already complete. Peace out!

Who are we? We're the people who were thinking about this long before it was cool. We have the technology, the patents and now all we need is the financing to begin the transformation of the American and Global economies to both biofuels AND petrochemical fuels combined. This would ease the ecomonic lives of millions of people all over the world and show all that the change-over to a greener future had begun in earnest. Who's with us?

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF TRYING SCOTCHBROOM
JIM

As of today, we've found two investors. A private party, and a private environmental fund. We're seeking to "spread it around", as it were. Through de-centralization and using as many local people and supplies as possible for the construction and running of a given facility, everybody wins!

Anyone interested in purchasing a SCIPIO Biofuels franchise, need only drop an email.

-M

If you are serious about biofuels, here's a few links you should look at.

http://energy.psyrk.us/press/
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewByAuthor.asp?authorID=1059
http://waterislife.psyrk.us

Matt, good luck with your funding, but if you want to be taken seriously, you need to get your scipiobiofuels.com website into working condition, and be willing to tell us more than "we're working on finding big money".

We've talked with most of the companies mentioned thus far in this discussion (above), and one or two of the people who have posted to this thread, too. We strongly agree with the ideal of eliminating the basic transportation costs of fuels. We want to produce fuels wherever there is a sewage treatment plant and an airport. We also have an algae culitvation apparatus that produces 6-8 times as much algae per square meter as any other system we have seen with the possible exception of Valcent/Vertigro (ours is pat. pend.)
We are discussing a pilot program for our algae apparatus at a couple of universities for start this fall.
We are also looking for money, business alliances and joint ventures. There is plenty of money out there eager to get involved, if you have a worthy process, product or plan.
(we require a mutual non-disclosure agreement before we release any information about our propietary processes, but a lot of what we do is described in some detail at the URLs listed in this post).

Love and warm wishes to all,

Sincerely,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
president [at] winfotech.com

"Doc"
Thanks for posting the information. I really like the video from Green Star Products. Like most stuff, everything is pretty vague. I understand the need to protect your lively hood and look forward to the day you can release details of your cultivation process.

Ultimiately a system will no kidding clean up the lake and produce useable oil that can be processed into biodiesel. Especially at a level that will generate small buisness's or even an affordable processor that allows an individual to make their own fuel rather than additional monopolies.

WE SHOULD KNOW BY MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK WE GROUND UP THE PLANT INTO VERY FINE PARTICLE SIZE AND IT IS BEING TESTED NOW
JIM

Hi "Doc" -

"If you want to be taken seriously…." How many times have I heard that specific phrase glibly jump from the mouths of those who feel it necessary to glorify themselves by de-valuing others and/or their efforts? Are you a real Physician or PhD? Or did you award the nickname "Doc" to yourself? Allow me to assure you "Doc" that we at SCIPIO Biofuels have been a little busy finalizing our Patent Application(s), designing required specialized equipment, and discussing with several committed investors how best to do what we are about to do. I can't really be tossing around proprietary information about our PBR's, Harvesters, or Processes as that wouldn't be appropriate at this time. Our investors have asked for discretion until such time that their marketing people can be made ready. I've got about 9 angles on the emerging biofuels industry because I've been improving my PBR, harvester and facility designs for the past 8 years. Another 16 months or less (OK a lot less) is all we are going to need to begin in earnest the revitalization of the economies of the western world, and step into the ring with global warming for round 1.

Marine algae is a good source to go into mass production. But here too at some times you have problems in production due to viruses and bacteria and they may suddenly collapse,(algael crash). Again it depends upon the algael strain, and if it is a native strain of that country in which we are culturing, then I think there would be not a big problem for the biosecurity of that region.

My opinion is that is the best source for biodiesel.

Algae: The New Oil

Collaboration is the motivating force of the National Algae Association of The Woodlands, Texas. Algae oil production companies, researchers and the investment community are coming together to find solutions for the oil crisis. Leading-edge technologies are discussed in the commercialization of algae oil and biomass. Interest in algae-to-biofuel is coming in from all over the United States and the world.

We need to bring “energy security” back to the US and reduce our dependency on foreign oil immediately. Current high oil prices, the collapse of food-for-fuel initiatives and concerns about increased levels of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere have all created awareness of the need for alternative fuel solutions. Collaboration, commercialization and acceleration are key to the fast growing secondary algae-to-biofuel industry.

Algae has emerged as one of the lowest cost feedstocks for the biofuels and cellulosic industries. It is considered to be a promising source of renewable oil which can be processed and refined into a variety of transportation fuels. Recent breakthroughs in raceway pond development and closed end loop systems put algae oil production companies on the leading-edge of the renewable oil industry.

Algae can be refined to make biofuel, jet fuel, bio-gasoline and cellulosic materials such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bioplastics and green packaging.

For additional information contact:

http://www.nationalalgaeassociation.com

Do you think that the closed system being developed are the best solution for algaic stuff? Water in - cleaned - specific strains added - centrifuged out (after growing) - squeezed - out comes jet fuel/biodiesel - recycle water, and voila! Aren't there some companies already doing this?

Closed end loop systems that are being developed will be the best solution for large scale algae production. Raceway ponds are limited in the amount of algae that can be grown and there are contamination problems. With a closed loop system, you have more control. Some of the members of the National Algae Association are raising money to build large scale closed end loop photobioreactors on hundreds of acres. These are not prototypes, they are "full scale" lines.

Matt Snyder, I would like to talk to you about your technologies. I believe that funding will be simple if the technologies are their. Give me a jingle at314-680-6700 or E-mail me at the above E-mail.

Barry

Forgot to mention that PetroSun is indeed in the algae business, see their site here: http://www.petrosuninc.com/algae-biofuels.html - their site is not particularly informative and the aerial shot shows that most of their ponds appear to be dry. Googling gets you more info. Apparently they send (or will send) their squeezings to other processors as feedstock. You can Google-map Rio Hondo, Texas and find the site by following the River Hondo eastwards. They're a penny stock PSUD (disclosure: I do hold some stock).

cheers all,

xpat

fixing our fuel problem could be simple if #1 the federal government?.bring it back to a state level and each state specializes in production of certian crops and most have a large surplus of thear product.the answer would be to build smaller processind plants for that particular state and regulate the cost verse profit on a equal scale.the end results would be no fuel shortages. and inflated fuel prices.and that would result in lower prices on everythind.

Barry,

What above email address? I looked. That doesn't mean it isn't there. It means I may be suffering from "Ocular A.D.D." today. We're working like gangbusters to move things forward. I hope to hear from you soon.

-M

The National Algae Association announces its Algae Commercialization Business Roundtable, Research, and Networking Forum. Existing algae oil production companies, algae researchers and algaeprenuers will present leading-edge technologies for commercialization of Algae: The New Biofuel on October 23-24, 2008, at The Woodlands Conference Center and Resort in The Woodlands, Texas. The NAA brings companies and researchers together to share ideas and exchange information to overcome technological hurdles to fast track commercialization of the algae oil industry.

Current high oil prices, the collapse of food-for-fuel initiatives and concerns about increased levels of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere have all created awareness of the need for alternative fuel solutions. Algae has emerged as one of the lowest cost feedstocks for the biofuels and cellulosic industries. Algae is considered to be a promising source of renewable oil which can be processed and refined into a variety of transportation fuels.

Recent breakthroughs in pond development and closed end loop systems put algae oil production companies on the leading-edge of the renewable oil industry.

When: October 23-24, 2008

Where: The Woodlands Conference Center and Resort

The Woodlands, Texas

Website: http://www.nationalalgaeassociation.com

[...] following was left as a comment in the algae biodiesel discussion by Sam Haynes. I felt it too interesting to be left buried deep in that other post, so here it is. [...]