by Tony Prehm  (Virtuoso Biofuels Services)  Prepared for the March 2010 National Algal Association conference in Las Vegas, reviews a variety of processes used in algal biomass-to-biofuels production, including separating solids, drying the product and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  was a cold Wednesday afternoon in January when the news came through that a consortium called the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts had received a $44 million grant …

UOP, a Honeywell (NYSE:HON) company, announced today that it has been awarded a $1.5 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project to demonstrate technology to capture carbon dioxide and produce …

Genetically stacking traits in corn in order to increase production, resist insects, improve standablity and many other characteristics is so common in agriculture that producers have come to expect it.
Some traits found in corn help …

by James Kanter  (New York Times)  A European lobbying group weighed in Tuesday on a fierce debate over the environmental value of using algae to produce biofuels for vehicles.
The group, the European Algae Biomass Association, …

by John Skipper  (Globe-Gazette)  A company based in Clear Lake is turning waste and algae into renewable fuels.
Bud Jermeland, 51, president of Energae LP, said the primary focuses of his company are waste-based ethanol and …

by Mark Fischetti  (Scientific American)  …But as more new and established companies examine how to scale up lab processes to commercial levels, scientists and engineers seem to be finding that standalone operations may not be …

by Will Thurmond (Biofuels Digest)  The global biofuels industry is entering a new decade of emerging opportunities and considerable challenges in reaching 2020 targets. The global economic recession is already shaking out many of the …

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 …

(CheckBiotech)  Part of the greenhouse complex at University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Beadle Center will be revamped into an algal biofuels research facility this year. Scientists will begin growing algae in small containers, then move on to …

Presented by the Algal Biomass Organization:

New developments in technology
Waste water remediation
Journey to commercialization
Green jobs and economic development
Policy and legislation
Intellectual property
Issues management – defining barriers to market success
Development of co-products
Non-fuel-based opportunities
Aviation biofuels
Life Cycle Analysis
Partnerships with DARPA, …

(MidWest AgNet)  Using algae, brine shrimp and tilapia, researchers have designed a novel system that extracts oil for use as biofuel, potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a proposed electric power plant.   Microalgal biomass production …

Will Thurmond (Biofuels Digest)  In 1973 the world experienced the first major supply shock from OPEC, leading to petrol shortages, and a sustained period of economic stagnation, and rampant inflation. As a response, US President …

OriginOil, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum, unveiled a comprehensive pilot system for algae growth and harvesting at …

by David Plazas (News-Press)  The Lee County Commissioners on Tuesday changed the rules on doling out economic development incentive money, and maybe that’s a good thing.  We’ll have to see because Algenol Biofuels— which is …

by Tamsin Carlisle (The National)  Just six months after ExxonMobil agreed to invest US$600 million (Dh2.2 billion) in a six-year project to develop biofuel from microscopic plants, teams of researchers are performing their first experiments. …

Alan Fischer (University of Arizona and Western Farm Press)  University of Arizona (UA) researchers believe the microscopic organism algae will be providing fuel to power vehicles within the next five years.
Joel Cuello, UA professor of …

Massachusetts-based renewable energy company Bodega Algae and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor, Maine, have received a six-month, $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation to develop …

The Algal Biomass Organization, challenged the conclusions of a published report in Environmental Science and Technology claiming that “conventional crops have lower environmental impacts than algae in energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and water.”  The …

(Newswise)  With many companies investing heavily in algae-based biofuels, researchers from the University of Virginia’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have found there are significant environmental hurdles to overcome before fuel production ramps up. …

by Ernest Lowe  (Biofuels Digest) …several speakers in the morning’s plenary sessions invoked major statuatory and regulatory barriers to fulfilling this promise. There are conflicting definitions of biomass and what qualifies as a legitimate source or …

by Amy Westervelt (Solve Climate)  There was a sense of deja vu in the biofuels sector this week when U.S. Energy Secretary Chu announced nearly $80 million in funding for research and development of algae-based …

Los Alamos National Laboratory has teamed with Solix Biofuels, Inc. to use an award-winning LANL sound-wave technology to optimize production of algae-based fuel in a cost-effective, scalable, and environmentally benign fashion.
Acoustic focusing—the novel use of …

Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (CTI) is pleased to announce filing a Nonprovisional Utility Patent Application titled “Method for Processing an Algae to Produce Algal Oil and By-Products” CTI successfully completed development and testing of its Algae …

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the investment of nearly $80 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for advanced biofuels research and fueling infrastructure that will help support the development …

by Barry Cohen (National Algae Association)  …At the start of the oil industry, wildcatters at Spindletop took risk, worked with what they had, and developed what they needed in the field. Look at all the changes …

Algae has been researched in the U.S. for over 50 years. Due to the high cost of oil and lack of energy security, commercializing the algae oil industry is now on a fast track! Collaboration, …

The National Algae Association’s next workshop will be Feb. 25-26 at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino in Las Vegas; the next conference will be on April 29-30, 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Intercontinental in Houston.  We …

2nd Algae World Europe will focus on algae’s multiple roles & applications in Skin care, Nutraceuticals, Animal Nutrition, Bioremediation (waste water treatment, coastal environment recovery), Carbon Capture & Recycle, Biofuels, Biogas and Biochemicals. 
2nd Algae World …

by Alexis Madrigal (Wired Science)  For nearly 20 years, a government laboratory built a living, respiring library of carefully collected organisms in search of something that could grow quickly while producing something precious: oil.
But now …

by Mark Coulton (The Australian)  … Carbon neutrality may be achievable without resorting to a hefty new tax if the government employed a skerrick of the initiative and ingenuity shown by the team at Townsville’s …

Australian scientists are achieving the world’s best production rates of oil from algae grown in open saline ponds, taking them a step closer to creating commercial quantities of clean biofuel for the future.
A joint $3.3 …

by Greg Kelton (Adelaide Now)  THE U.S. parent company of uranium producer Heathgate Resources has held talks with the State Government over developing a renewable energy fuel in South Australia - from algae.  
Premier Mike Rann …

by Simon Grose  (TCE Today)  Algae, wood and sugarcane shared the honours in the bidding for funding through the Australian government’s Second generation Biofuels research and development program.  Announcing matching grants totaling A$14.4m ($12.1m) across seven …

Cereplast, Inc., a leading manufacturer of proprietary bio-based, sustainable plastics, announced today that it expects the U.S. bio-plastics market to top $10 billion in sales by 2020. As of 2007, the U.S. bio-plastics market accounted …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … 2009 has taught us that the excess of emissions in the skies and shortage of land on the ground may well be solved underwater, through microcrops: algaes. diatoms, cyanobacteria …

by Ron Putt (Auburn University)  Alabama has an immediate opportunity to lead the nation in becoming self sufficient with respect to liquid fuels for transportation. Mass cultivation of micro-algae in the state, using less than …

by Curt Rich (VanNess Feldman)  Presentation from the Algae Biomass Summit, October 2009 reviews federal grant and loan programs, climate change legislative proposals from an algal biofuels perspective.  READ MORE

by Jeremy Hsu (Space.com) NASA may concern itself largely with space exploration, but it also wants to keep Earth on a steady course in the face of rising energy costs and climate change. Now the U.S. …

Dynaflow, Inc.®, a leader in R&D services and products in fluid dynamics and applied sciences, today announced that it has been awarded a Department of Energy (DOE) Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract …

(Renewable Energy World)  Solazyme Inc. will build its first integrated algae fuel refinery in Pennsylvania. The biorefinery will be built in Riverside, Pennsylvania and will be funded in part by a US $21.8 million federal …

 PetroAlgae Inc., announced today that its has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Engineering and Construction Group for engineering services to be performed in conjunction with PetroAlgae’s micro-crop technology, which allows …

(Science Daily)  An Arizona State University research team has developed a process that removes a key obstacle to producing lower-cost, renewable biofuels. The team has programmed a photosynthetic microbe to self-destruct, making the recovery of …

PetroSun, Inc.,  announced that the Department of Energy has advised Gas Technology Institute of Des Plaines, Illinois that its Integrated Biorefinery application has been selected for negotiations leading to an award. The GTI team members …

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced today that its Ecofining process technology was used to convert second-generation, renewable feedstocks to green diesel fuel that will power vehicles at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate …

Algenol Biofuels, in partnership with The Linde Group, have agreed to collaborate in a joint project that will attempt to identify the optimum management of carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen for Algenol’s algae and photobioreactor …

by Tina Casey  (CleanTechnica.com) One barrier to cost-competitive biofuel from algae is about to fall, and we may have nanofarming to thank for that.  The new technology uses tiny nanoparticles to absorb free fatty acids from …

by Christain Macavei (Daily Californian)  UC Berkeley researchers now have a better understanding of algae, which may have implications for making biofuels more economically feasible.   In a study published in the journal Nature Nov. 26, the researchers …

Reps. Harry Teague (D-N.M.), Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced H.R. 4168 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand the definition of cellulosic biofuel to include algae-based biofuel for purposes …

(MercoPress)  United States corporation Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) has founded a subsidiary, BAL Chile, through which the company has already begun cultivating 100 hectares of seaweed on the island of Chiloé, with the aim of …