Algae Biodiesel Costs 33$ a Gallon
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Algae biofuel startup Solix, for instance, can produce biofuel from algae right now, but it costs about $32.81 a gallon, said Bryan Wilson, a co-founder of the company and a professor at Colorado State University. The production cost is high because of the energy required to circulate gases and other materials inside the photo bioreactors where the algae grow. It also takes energy to dry out the biomass, and Solix uses far less water than other companies
By exploiting waste heat at adjacent utilities , the price can probably be brought down to $5.50 a gallon . By selling the proteins and other byproducts from the algae for pet food, the price can be brought to $3.50 a gallon in the near term.But that’s still the equivalent of $150 a barrel of oil.
It’s only in phase II of Solix’s business plan that it will be able to drop production costs to $3.30 to $1.57 a gallon, or around $60 to $80 a barrel. Solix has set a goal of cutting the cost of making algae by 90 percent.
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