Alliance to develop biocrude oil from algae

Oct. 13 -- A Menlo Park, Calif., company has created an alliance of scientists to focus on producing biocrude oil from algae by 2010.

LiveFuels Inc. is funding the alliance, which Sandia National Laboratories will lead. Sandia National Laboratories is a U.S. Department of Energy national security laboratory that Sandia Corp., a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, operates.

The LiveFuels alliance plans to develop commercial technology that can make million of barrels of crude oil per day from algae. The challenge is to cheaply grow and transform specific algal species into crude oil within days rather than millennia, said Lisa Morgenthaler- Jones, CEO of LiveFuels.

As Landscape Architects and stewards of the environment, NWA employees have been driving automobiles powered by biofuels since April of 2005. As we understand it, algae produces 20 times the biofuels per square foot as corn, canola, soy or rapeseed. And algae needs little to grow - sunlight and water, meaning very little fuel is needed to create an energy source eminating from algae. There are no tractors, irrigation or other energy needs required to grow it. Algae and seaweed seem to have the most to offer for the least expenditure... Stay tuned.