written by Colin Sumner , April 30, 2008

It would generally be useful if the authors of articles were better identified at least to the point of qualifications viz science journalist for the ........

written by S Nayar , April 30, 2008

I am not sure how much hands on experience the author has in the area of algal biotechnology and mass culture. Harvesting algal blooms for biofuels as an option??? I would like to know how many bloom forming algal species contain enough oil to make the process viable.

written by Damir Ibrisimovic , May 01, 2008

Conversion of sugars into 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF similar to gasoline) should provide much larger percentage of biofuel than algal oils only.

written by liz thornton , May 04, 2008

Has noone heard of brainstorming??
Surely the days of naysayers are over.We must not push all our inventors overseas because the concept is too difficult to imagine here in Australia.
The wheel was invented after all!

written by Dave S , May 07, 2008

There's some research going on here in the U.S. to use algae to make biodeisel. I'm not sure if there's any commercial products available yet, but I remember hearing about possibilities near the Sulton Sea in southern California. It's been the talk for a few years and a friend has received a small sample for testing at his bio plant here in Arkansas. Check out http://www.greencarcongress.co...-to-b.html and http://www.scitizen.com/storie...ive-Fuels/

written by Tony G , May 08, 2008

I had this on file. Isaac Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is using algae to clean up power-plant exhaust, saving greenhouse gas emissions and satisfying energy needs.
The idea occurred to him three years ago, although it is not exactly new (see later). He bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a 20 MW power plant rows of clear tubes with green algae soup inside. The algae grew happily, gobbling up 40 percent of the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and as a bonus, 86 percent of the nitrous oxide as well, resulting in a much cleaner exhaust.
The algae is harvested daily and its oil extracted to make biodiesel for transport use, leaving a green dry flake that can be further processed to ethanol, also a transport fuel (but see “Ethanol from cellulose biomass not sustainable nor environmentally benign”, this series).
GreenFuel, the company set up by Berzin in Cambridge Mass., has already attracted £11 million in venture capital funding and is conducting a field trial at 1 000 MW plant owned by a major southwestern power company. GreenFuel expects two to seven more such demo projects, scaling up to a full production system by 2009.
One key to success is to select an alga with a high oil density – about 50 percent by weight. Algae are prolific and can produce 15 000 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared to just 60 gallons from soybean. Berzin estimates that a 1 000 MW power plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. But that would require a 2 000 acre farm near the power plant.
Greenfuel is not alone in racing to make oil out of algae. Greenshift Corporation, an incubator company based in Mount Arlington New Jersey, licensed a CO2-scrubbing screen-like filter developed by David Bayless, researcher at Ohio University. A prototype is capable of handling 140 cubic metres of flue gas per minute, an amount equivalent to the exhaust from 50 cars or a 3-megawatt power plant.
The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) had a research project from1978 to1996 on creating renewable transportation fuel with algae making use of waste CO2 from coal fired power plants. The project, led by NREL scientist John Sheehan, was funded at $25.05 m over the 20-year period, compared to the total spending under the Biofuels Program over the same period of $459 m. It resulted in a collection of 300 species of green algae and diatoms, now housed in the University of Hawaii and still available to researchers. Although some technical and economic problems remained to be solved, it was estimated that just 15 000 square miles (or 3.8 m ha) of desert (the Sonoran desert in California and Arizona is more than 8 times that size) could grow enough algae to replace nearly all of the nation’s current diesel requirements, and algae use far less water than traditional oilseed crops.
Researchers also suggested using algae to clean up Salton Sea in Southern California [7], into which more than 10 000 tons of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers are discharged annually. The idea was to use some 1 000 ha of pond system to grow algae such as Spirulina with the sea water, harvest the algae biomass and convert that into fuels, while the residual sludge could be recycled to agriculture for its fertilizer value. An estimate suggests that such a process could mitigate several hundred thousand tons of CO2 emissions at below $10/ton CO2 equivalent.
But it is perhaps the algae’s potential for carbon-capture that makes them most attractive, and it is as yet almost untapped.

written by Damir Ibrisimovic , May 13, 2008

Thank you for your receptive ears. The idea of algal farming seems to be contagious. Its incubation may have already produced some thoughts about how to translate words into deeds.
With support from ScienceAlert, I have decided to establish a discussion group to prepare a fertile ground for future algal farms. Although we cannot expect funding soon, the discussion will quickly outline areas of research needed. And the potential ranges from corrosion resistant infrastructure to environmental impacts, algae nutritional value etc.
I have already started working on a purpose driven database design. In the next couple of weeks, I will also establish the discussion group. For the beginning it will be invitation only, but feel free to email me outlining an area of interest at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
ScienceAlert also expressed willingness to publish related findings or events we might organise and I’m quite confident that we can have plenty soon.