Photon8 aims at $1.25 per gallon algal biofuels
In Texas, Automotive Industries online reports that algal fuels developer Photon8 is modeling a diesel fuel cost of $1.25 per US gallon.
Their secret sauce? According to AI online, ” Photon8 has demonstrated photobioreactor production rate equal to 1.5 gal/square meter/yr and is on its way to an expected rate of 22,000 gal per 2.5 acre/yr then to best economic units of 5 acres. It believes further development may bring it close to 10,000 gal/acre/yr as a basis for planning large production systems.”
The company’s focus is producing hydrocarbons straight from algae to be used as drop-in fuels.
Company CEO Brad Bartilson said that around the time the company was looking into how to make jet fuel, came the realization that the firm’s algae cell growth rate was high enough that it could use some of the cells to make hydrocarbons once they’d been “milked” of oily lipids, an essential ingredient for algae-based biofuel, rather than using the cells exclusively for lipid production.
Category: Fuels
