In Virginia, a new study from the University of Virginia casts doubt over the environmental credentials of algae as feedstock for biofuel. Though less transportation energy is used when algae is a feedstock versus when switchgrass or other farmed biomass is a feedstock, algae requires much more energy and water for processing than other biomass. […]
In India, Eco Green Fuels and World Health Energy has signed a LOI for a comprehensive joint venture to provide 1 million liters of algal oil to EFG by the last quarter of 2012. World Health Energy Holdings, Inc. recently acquired GNE-India, an algae technology company with the distribution and licensing rights to a unique […]
In Japan, heavy machinery manufacturer IHI Corp. is teaming with Kobe University to develop an algae-based biodiesel R&D company by August. Called NeoG Algae, IHI will invest $5 million over two years and hopes to supply test samples of algae-based jet fuel within three years with a price target of just $1.25 per liter.
In California, Sapphire Energy has teamed with Linde AG to co-develop a low-cost system to deliver carbon dioxide (CO2) to commercial-scale, open-pond, algae-to-fuel cultivation systems. Linde, the leading merchant CO2 supplier in the U.S., will partner with Sapphire Energy, to reduce the costs associated with the delivery of anthropogenic CO2 for commercial-scale open pond algae cultivation. […]
In Pennsylvania, BARD and OriginOil have formed a co-venture for technology development, focusing on BARD’s BA 1000, a patent-pending modular system of Photo BioReactors (PBRs) to cultivate algae at commercial scale, and OriginOil’s harvesting and extraction technology. OriginOil’s breakthrough technology has led it to focus efforts on harvesting and extraction. “OriginOil’s harvesting and extraction technology […]
In Washington State, PNNL researchers Mark Wigmosta, a PNNL hydrologist, and his co-authors have published a study that being smart about where we grow algae can drastically reduce how much water is needed for algal biofuel. Growing algae for biofuel, while being water-wise, could also help meet congressionally mandated renewable fuel targets by replacing 17% […]
In the UAE, biologist David Francis is looking for funding for a pilot study to test different methods of growing algae for biofuel, and believes “the UAE’s sun-drenched empty spaces could be just the ticket for the algae”, according to a report in The National. Francis identified, among UAE strengths: its research universities, a government […]
In Georgia, Algae.Tec has opened their Algae Development & Manufacturing Centre in Atlanta, Georgia where the photobioreactors will be assembled for shipping around the world. The company also announced it had appointed the Bank of New York Mellon to commence the establishment of a Level 1 American Depository Receipt Program. Algae.Tec’s centre in Atlanta is […]
By Biofuels Digest columnist Mary Rosenthal executive director, Algal Biomass Organization At a time of rising gas prices and all-too-high unemployment, policy makers in Washington should be focused on advancing policies that create jobs, expand our nation’s domestic supply of renewable fuels, and decrease our dependence on imported petroleum. Instead, some in Congress have chosen […]
In California, a new report by John Sheehan indicates that VG Energy’s proprietary technology has the potential to create algal biofuel at prices that are competitive with current prices for crude oil. The process reportedly results in increased lipid production in the algae cells as well as increasing the ability to recycle these cells. The […]
