I was reading  an article about Craig Venter’s  of SGI from the Oilgae club – http://www.oilgae.com/club/users/Shankar/blogs/662 and thought I would dedicate the article below( Written by Mr. Narsi, Oilgae) which was  sent to the Oilgae Mailing list members on the month of July. Here you go.. The last ten days have been hectic for those […]

Synthetic Genomics along with Exon Mobil have been working on genetically engineering microalgae for producing algae oil. A similar approach is being followed by a start-up company based out of Cambridge is pretty much working on the same approach. Joule Unlimited is genetically altering photosynthetic micro organisms so that over their lifetime, they devote only […]

Algae-based carbon-dioxide capture seems to be an excellent opportunity for industries such as cement industries, iron and steel as well as for companies such as  National Aluminum Company(NALCO) which emit enormous amount of carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere. With the initiative of the Orissa government, a 9.5 million project will be launched to sequester carbon-dioxide from […]

Verenium Corp., a Cambridge commercial enzyme developer, has closed the $98.3 million sale of its cellulosic biofuels business to BP Biofuels North America today.As part of the acquisition, Verenium’s pilot plant and demonstration-scale facility in Jennings, La., is now owned by BP BP also takes over the company’s research and development facilities in San Diego […]

Thailand’s Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Department may be financing algal biofuel research and development, according to Deputy Director-General Twarath Sutabutr. The department will fund the project and help  two Thai universities – Burapha University and Kasetsart University the leading Australian research institutes James Cook University and the Queensland University of Technology share marine technology […]

I came across this  paper on the comparitive study of lipid composition of two halotolerant algae, Dunaliella bardawil and Dunaliella salina.- Interesting! This paper highlights the the composition of polar, neutral and glycolipid fractions of two halotolerant algae, Dunaliella salina and Dunaliella bardawil. These two algae are usually used to study beta-carotene As far as […]

Washington State University(WSU) along with  Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Port of Seattle, Port of Portland and Spokane International Airport will be working on a algae-biofuel project for aviation purposes. Research will include an analysis of biofuel feedstocks native to the Pacific Northwest, including algae, oilseeds such as camelina and woody biomass. The project will identify potential […]

As you might be aware that extraction of algal biomass directly i.e. avoiding the steps such as dewatering and drying which are energy intensive will help a great deal in reducing the cost of biodiesel obtained from algae.The researchers at the University of Michigan have published the feasibility of a two-step process to produce biodiesel […]

The Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA), the UK’s independent regulator for biofuels  report that they are disappointed that the vast majority of biofuels sold on UK forecourts do not conform to environmental standards. The fuel suppliers were meeting legally binding volume targets but some were falling “well short” on achieving voluntary green standards. The figures of […]

When I was researching on the metabolic engineering  aspects of algae to produce renewable fuels, my eyes caught upon this article– it squite Interesting   and it provides a lot of useful insights on the strategies employed for genetic engineering microbes for fuel production. Using synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, or other advanced techniques to create novel […]

The Department of Energy(DOE)  comprises of many national laboratories and technology centers and many such national labs are working on algae projects. Three national labs of the DOE have now been awarded the R&D 100 awards, for their innovative technologies. A brief description of their technology and the advantages of each of those techniques have […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Biomass Program is hosting a Webinar on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, from 2:00–4:30 p.m. EDT entitled “The Promise and Challenge of Algae as a Renewable Source of Biofuels.” This Web conference marks the first in the Biomass Program’s Webinar series, which will cover many of the program’s activities and […]

Dark fermentation is in the news after Solazyme , an US based algae company delivered 1500 gallons of jet fuel to the US navy early July. Interestingly, this company ‘s approach ( Earlier post) is different from the rest, they grow genetically engineered algae  in the dark and follow what is called the heterotrophic fermentation […]

Algae-cultivation on a whole faces several challenges. There are two methods of growing algae –  one is the photoautotrophic cultivation  and the other is the  heterotrophic cultivation. Photoautotrophic cultivation as the name suggests is cultivating algae in the presence of light – the light can be either freely available sunlight or artificially provided light.  Heterotrophic […]

An algae bioenergy event  is being organised by the National Algae Association(NAA). All the registeration information can be obtained from the following link – http://www.nationalalgaeassociation.com. All algaepreneurs from all over the world are expected to attend this mega event. Its not just a conference, there is more – Scholarships will be awarded for  the most […]

It’s not easy to select the right algae strain  say many scientists and its absolutely true.. It is not just isolating a algae from a natural environment and culturing it and transferring  them into a open-ponds, PBR’s, fermenter or whatever. It is a lot more… According to the DOE, there are three parameters required to […]

Some airlines have been testing different types of biofuel to determine the viability of using sustainable alternatives  such as algae aviation fuel to the Jet-A1 (kerosene) fuel currently used by commercial aviation. Recently, a company called Solazyme has delivered about 1500 gallons of aviation fuel to the US military. Slowly, many other airlines are working […]

This summit and exhibition –  Defining The Future Biofuels Market taking place on 13-14 September 2010 in Berlin  invites biofuel enthusiasts to learn, network and generate sales at ground-breaking annual biofuel and biomass event focused on the development of renewable sources of energy. This high-profile event expects to get  connected  with plant builders, financiers, consultants, […]

An event in Singapore –  3rd Algae World Asia  being  held on the 19 and 20 Oct, 2010 plans to focus on the business and technological aspects of producing algae for: Human and animal nutrition, Carbon-dioxide Sequestration Waste-Water Treatment The event will have various  participants  such as Algae fuels Producers .  Algae Equipment Suppliers , […]

Algae.tec Limited, which has secured the exclusive global rights to a pioneering highly-efficient algae growth and harvesting system that produces algal products such as algal oil and biomass announced two MOUs  deploy the algae  technology in China and Australia. Algae.Tec is currently undertaking an Initial Public Offering by way of a prospectus dated 16 July […]

An interdisciplinary team of scientists discover a new form of Chlorophyll which could lead to new developments of new methods to produce biofuels. The team had a group of scientists –  Dr Martin Schliep and Dr Zhengli Cai (University of Sydney, Australia) –   Associate Professor Robert Willows (Macquarie University, Australia); –  Professor Brett Neilan (University […]

VCs have put in billions into biofuels over the last six years with nothing  to show . Range Fuels and Mascoma have had to delay production and everyone has suffered from a swoon in oil prices. To generate revenue in the short term, many have diversified into green chemicals or food. Algae specialist Aurora Biofuels, […]

The new business plan of Aurora, formerly Aurora Biofuels emerged out of research conducted at UC Berkeley in 2007 with a business plan to grow algae in open ponds to produce fuel. However, they have now decided to move into the food market and hence the change in the name as well. Now into the […]

BioCentric Energy an algae company based out of technical team is working at its headquarters this week preparing and assembling all components of the commercial PBR system for the Death Valley Junction, California site. The team is in the process of loading the 20ft trailer that recently arrived from South Carolina last Friday, with the […]

The New Mexico  State University  (NSMU) has secured a fund of  $200,000 . The university plans to use  a portion of its funding for renewable energy research, specially to fund the algae biodiesel project.  The fund has been provided by the  New Mexico Gov – Bill Richardson According to Abbas Ghassemi,  a NMSU professor of […]