Oil from algae? Scientists seek green gold - Going green- msnbc.com

Oil from algae? Scientists seek green gold

Microorganisms can be turned into biodiesel, and the cost is going down

	University of Minnesota professor Roger Ruan is one of scores of scientists working to economically extract oil from alage. View related photos
Thomas Whisenand / AP

Most Viewed

• Top Rated

• Most E-mailed

Teacher guilty in 'Muhammad' teddy bear case

Graveyard shift linked to cancer risk

$1 million lottery ticket unlucky for winner

Slovak cops: Seized uranium is weapons-grade

SELF survey: Healthiest cities for women

Most viewed on MSNBC.com

Message boards

Going green: Social consciousness or profits? Share your thoughts

updated 4:09 p.m. ET Nov. 29, 2007

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 16 big flasks of bubbling bright green liquids in Roger Ruan's lab at the University of Minnesota are part of a new boom in renewable energy research.

Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.

Some varieties of algae are as much as 50 percent oil, and that oil can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is slashing the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon.

Story continues below ↓

"If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you'll be where you need to be. And there's a lot of people who think you can," said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP LLC, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc.

Researchers are trying to figure out how to grow enough of the right strains of algae and how to extract the oil most efficiently. Over the past two years they've enjoyed an upsurge in funding from governments, the Pentagon, big oil companies, utilities and venture capital firms.

The federal government halted its main algae research program nearly a decade ago, but technology has advanced and oil prices have climbed since then, and an Energy Department lab announced in late October that it was partnering with Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, in the hunt for better strains of algae.

"It's not backyard inventors at this point at all," said George Douglas, a spokesman for the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "It's folks with experience to move it forward."

A New Zealand company demonstrated a Range Rover powered by an algae biodiesel blend last year, but experts say it will be many years before algae is commercially viable. Ruan expects some demonstration plants to be built within a few years.

More on this story

How biology will fill your fuel tank
Smart appliances learn to save power grid
Toyota takes ride on green side

Converting algae oil into biodiesel uses the same process that turns vegetable oils into biodiesel. But the cost of producing algae oil is hard to pin down because nobody's running the process start to finish other than in a laboratory, Douglas said. One Pentagon estimate puts it at more than $20 per gallon, but other experts say it's not clear cut.

If it can be brought down, algae's advantages include growing much faster and in less space than conventional energy crops. An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae.

An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It wouldn't require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water. And algae can gobble up pollutants from sewage and power plants.

CONTINUED: "Our definition of affordable"

1 | 2 | Next >

Rate this story

Low