Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Large-scale commercial algae ventures focused solely on biofuels will have a VERY difficult time overcoming capital and O&M cost hurdles required of the marketplace.”

Dr. Clive Richardson, CEO, Kilimanjaro BioFuels (Tanzania): “The aviation industry global network is the only platform of activity that is developed sufficiently to afford a complete least cost agriculture to industry value chain for the delivery of a bio fuel from Jatropha Curcas Linn. Currently the opportunity to acquire sufficient feedstock for processing could only be considered along the SE Asian Economic Corridor. Malaysia and Indonesia may have harvest values at strategic locations while much of the African or Indian based agricultural activity has been established without regard for future access to market or refinery technology.”

Jeff H. Hassannia, Diversified Energy Corporation: “Large-scale commercial algae ventures focused solely on biofuels will have a VERY difficult time overcoming capital and O&M cost hurdles required of the marketplace – for quite some time…The government and private enterprise must continue to focus on R&D to reduce costs and enhance yields. Comprehensive, logical, and focused R&D needs to be put in place. The industry (today) should focus on business models that grow algae for other high-value products, with biofuels production as a secondary product until the market fully matures.”

A detailed op-ed on algae commercialization by Hassania is available here.

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