US DOE Gives $24 Million for Algae Biofuels Research

In brief: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has given three grants, totaling $24 million, to consortia working on algae cultivation for fuel production.

The word

With the potential to produce up to 100 times as much fuel per acre (compared to corn, soy, etc.), algae is one of the most up-and-coming biofuel sources in development. The U.S. DOE is hoping to push this research into viable production with three grants targeted at research into advanced algal uses.

A team at the University of California, San Diego received $9M to work on algal strains for production and feedstock. A team at Arizona State University received $6M to work on algal biofuels and a team from Cellana, LLC received $9M to develop large-scale production processes.

And so ...

The three research branches are the three major areas of algae-to-fuel. So far, some strains (specifically for biodiesel) are being commercialized on a small scale as both stand-alone fuel-makers and as carbon capture setups at power plants.

Photo credits: U.S. DOE