Arizona Set to Become Center for Algae-Based, Biofuel Industry
Scientists at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus say major innovations in research in recent years have put them on the brink of boosting production capabilities from thousands of gallons to millions – the difference between powering a few vehicles and fueling millions of cars and fleets of airliners.
ASU researchers say they are three to five years from large-scale production, a breakthrough that could eventually reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
…ASU’s Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology, based at the Polytechnic campus in Mesa, has received millions in grants, including $3 million from Science Foundation Arizona and a local company, Heliae Development, to develop jet fuel from algae. The laboratory also recently was awarded a $6 million U.S. Department of Energy grant.
…”The reason we keep trying to get fuel out of algae and ethanol from corn is that we’ve put trillions of dollars into a liquid-fuel infrastructure around the world,” (ASU Senior Vice President Rick) Shangraw said. “We know how to transport the stuff, and we have hundreds of millions of vehicles and boilers that burn it. For us to move to a hydrogen-based economy, or to go electric, would mean huge costs redoing the infrastructure.”
…Shangraw said that as research-and-development advances reduce the price of algae fuel from its current cost of about $20 a gallon to more like $3 or $4 a gallon, we need to look carefully at the “true costs” of fossil fuels vs. biofuels. The military and human cost of keeping oil flowing from the Middle East, for example.
“Or what about the cost of the BP oil spill in the Gulf?” Shangraw said. “Economists call these other costs ‘externalities.’ The factors should figure into the price of something.
“If we had all those factors, the cost of oil would be a lot higher, and the cost of some other fuels, like fuel from algae, would look a lot more reasonable.” READ MORE
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