Old Dominion pioneering new paths to algal fuel

In Virginia, researchers at Old Dominion University confirmed that they are now able to produce algal-based fuel from fatty lipids in the algal cell, but also from biopolymers in the algal cell wall.

The researchers are extracting oils, then using a proprietary chemical treatment to strip the proteins from algal cells. Finally, the remaining biomass is subjected to pyrolysis, which they say produces a liquid fuel “better than the light sweet crude you get from Saudia Arabia,” according to Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium exec director Patrick Hatcher.

Hatcher noted that the fuel is absent the levels of sulphur and nitrogen that plagues oil refineries and automotive catalytic converters.

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