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A US company is road testing a factory-standard car which it claims is the first ever to run long distances on algae-derived biodiesel fuel. Solazyme Inc. says it has made the fuel through a proprietary process and has run the test car under typical driving conditions. The news comes shortly after Shell and HR Biopetroleum announced a link-up to build a small scale algae fuel research plant. Shell announced it had formed a joint venture with HR Biopetroleum that will construct a demonstration plant to harvest algae which, they say, can double their mass several times a day, providing 15 times more oil per hectare than alternatives such as rapeseed.
Meanwhile a New Zealand company, Aquaflow Bionomic Corp has patented a process to extract biofuel from sewage, and last year the country's minister for energy, David Parker, road-tested a car run on algae-derived oil.
In December 2007, Shell announced it had formed a joint venture with HR Biopetroleum that will construct a demonstration plant to harvest algae which, they say, can double their mass several times a day, providing 15 times more oil per hectare than alternatives such as rapeseed. Algae thrive in shallow, brackish water and voraciously consume CO2. They can double their mass in hours and need less space than other biofuels.
The Guardian Newspaper also reports that the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, an alliance of aircraft manufacturers, industry organisations and entrepreneurs, is seeking an aviation fuel that could come from algae.
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