Interesting news story today that Exxon are apparently putting $600m into turning algae into biofuel.
Algae has long been seen as one of the best ways of making bio-fuels for a number of reasons.
No food crops, such as corn, are taken up by its production and it can be grown it in industrial plants, which means it doesn’t displace food crops.
There shouldn’t be as much processing of algae required to produce the biofuel as other biofuel source crops such as switchgrass.
Ideally the algae is grown in large clear glass tubes, and then strained and processed.
If you design a plant from the ground up and add a power station, partially fuelled by the remains of the algae from the processing, excess heat from the power station can e used to encourage algal growth.
What’s particularly interesting is who Exxon is getting involved with – Craig Venter.
Venter is a biologist, probably best known for his private industry sequencing of the human genome.
Not only does he know genetics, he has a track record in the field to help tweak the genome of the algae as needed.
He’s been working on clean fuels from this type of source for four years, so Exxon are working alongside an experienced and knowledgeable company.
Let’s hope this collaboration bears fruit.
Tags: algae, biofuel, craig venter, exxon
[...] Exxon looks to algae as next-gen biofuel « MT Blog [...]