Algae to Solve the Pentagon’s Jet Fuel Problem
by Suzanne Goldenberg (The Guardian) The brains trust of the Pentagon says it is just months away from producing a jet fuel from algae for the same cost as its fossil-fuel equivalent.
The claim, which comes from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) that helped to develop the internet and satellite navigation systems, has taken industry insiders by surprise. A cheap, low-carbon fuel would not only help the US military, the nation’s single largest consumer of energy, to wean itself off its oil addiction, but would also hold the promise of low-carbon driving and flying for all.
Darpa’s research projects have already extracted oil from algal ponds at a cost of $2 per gallon. It is now on track to begin large-scale refining of that oil into jet fuel, at a cost of less than $3 a gallon, according to Barbara McQuiston, special assistant for energy at Darpa.
…”Darpa has achieved the base goal to date,” she said. “Oil from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1 per gallon.”
McQuiston said a larger-scale refining operation, producing 50 million gallons a year, would come on line in 2011 and she was hopeful the costs would drop still further – ensuring that the algae-based fuel would be competitive with fossil fuels. She said the projects, run by private firms SAIC and General Atomics, expected to yield 1,000 gallons of oil per acre from the algal farm.
McQuiston’s projections took several industry insiders by surprise. “It’s a little farther out in time,” said Mary Rosenthal, director of the Algal Biomass Association. “I am not saying it is going to happen in the next three months, but it could happen in the next two years.” READ MORE and MORE
The following correction was printed in the Observer’s For the record column, Sunday 21 February 2010
This item contained incorrect information supplied by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). We repeated its assertion that jet fuel production from refined algae would begin next year. Darpa now says that it should have told us that testing will begin next year with production not planned until 2013.
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