Australian researchers say saltwater algae biodiesel production is at parity with petroleum diesel costs; commercial-scaling is all that is needed.

In Australia, researchers at the national science organization, CSIRO, have concluded that the cost of saltwater algae production is now, based on current science, lower than the cost of diesel from fossil crude oil. In the study, the researchers focused on maximizing the value of biodiesel in economic and carbon terms by co-locating algae production with a power source – for power generation purposes more than CO2 capture.

The full report, downloadable here, cautions that translating science into continuous commercial-scale production has not yet been achieved with algae, but also pointed out that algae farms can create up to 37 jobs per 1,000 acres in algae production, and determined that a plant of that size could be economically feasible.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

OriginOil partners with Idaho National Laboratory for commercial scaling of algae-based fuels

In Idaho, OriginOil announced a multi-phase Cooperative Agreement with the Idaho National Laboratory that will focus on validation and commercial scaling of algae-based fuels. In the initial phase, th...

New Mexico researchers accelerate algae biofuel timeline; commercial demonstration seen in 18 months

In New Mexico, researchers at the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management in Artesia said that they will be ready for a commercial demonstration of algae-based biofuels within 18 month...

Algal fuel pioneer John Benemann joins Australia’s Future Fuels Consortium

In Australia, algae research pioneer John Benemann has been appointed as specialist advisor to the Australian-based Future Fuels Consortium. The consortium consists of the national science agency CSIR...

Sapphire Energy says algae commercialization accelerating; expects to double commercial outut in 2011 to 1 million gallons of jet fuel and green diesel

In California, Sapphire Energy said the pace of algae commercialization is increasing and that it will reach commercial scale by 2011, and producing 1 Mgy of diesel and jet fuel from algae that year, ...

Bharat Petroleum partners with Tamil Nadu University for algae biodiesel pilot plant

In India, Bharat Petroleum announced a research partnership with Tamil Nadu University to pursue a pilot-scale algae biodiesel plant. The three year partnership will, if successful in the pilot phase,...

Australian study shows throat cells killed by diesel, not biodiesel

An Australian study reports on the damage caused to throat cells from diesel exhaust, while finding little or no negative impact from biodiesel. Leigh Ackland, Associate Head of Deakin's School of ...