University of Hawaii Assistant Professor Zackary Johnson examines algae cultures
Within just two years, Americans could be filling their cars with clean-burning biodiesel made from algae.
That’s the ambitious assessment of Harrison Dillon, co-founder of
synthetic biology company Solazyme, who believes the transition could
move even faster if oil prices continue to climb north of $100 a barrel.
Solazyme is one of the leaders in the rapidly blooming algae-oil
industry, and has recently entered talks with Chevron about
distributing its fuel, Soladiesel. Other front-runners include Shell,
working with HR Biopetroleum, Global Green Solutions, Valcent Products
and International Energy. However, all owe a debt to a 30-year-old
research project.
The $25 million Aquatic Species Program was set up in 1978 by the
Carter Administration to investigate high-oil types of algae that could
be grown for biodiesel. The project, run by the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, found algae farms producing the plants in shallow
ponds could supply enough biodiesel to completely replace fossil oil
for transportation and home heating.
Scientists estimated the 140.8 billion gallons needed to fuel the
country at the time could be produced by 15,000 square miles of algae
farms. To put that in perspective, Arizona’s Sonora Desert alone is
120,000 square miles.
But by 1995, oil prices had settled down again and President Clinton's
government was looking for budget cuts. The NREL decided to concentrate
on ethanol and closed the ASP. However, its collection of more than
3,000 strains of algae is still open to researchers at the University
of Hawaii and is widely regarded as the intellectual property backbone
for today’s algae-to-fuel startups.
Work on algae cutltures at National Energy Laboratory Hawaii Authority (NELH) , Kona
[Liz Turner, Green Fuels Forecast]