Algae biofuel ‘in five years’

A commercial alternative to diesel using biofuel made from algae will be developed in five years, the South Australian Research and Development Institute says.

Research is expected to begin at SARDI’s new Aquatic Sciences plant at West Beach next year, facility manager Eric Capelle said.
The $5 million project will be used for research into micro-algae as a viable alternative feedstock for biofuels.

Dr Capelle said the high-tech infrastructure would allow existing lab-scale results to be validated at a pilot and demonstration scale.

“This is a major step forward in fully commercialising the much anticipated technology,” Dr Capelle said.

“The potential of micro-algae as a renewable biofuel source is an exciting alternative to existing sources.

“It produces at least 30-times more oil per hectare than crop-based fuels, it is a non-food fuel resource and it consumes the greenhouse gas CO2 to grow and multiply.”

Dr Capelle said the use of algae to produce fuels was one long-term solution to the world’s declining oil reserves.

“To make it commercially viable we need to improve the efficiency of algae production and oil extraction from the algae,” he said.

Adelaide Now