Algenol trains algae to turn carbon into ethanol

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private U.S. company Algenol plans to make ethanol from a primordial green soup that won’t raise food costs compared to other biofuel feedstocks like corn and sugar cane.

The company has signed an $850 million deal with a Mexican company BioFields to grow algae, one of the planet’s first life forms, that has been trained to convert water, sunlight, and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into motor fuel.

Paul Woods, Algenol’s chief executive, said he’s known the technology for decades but that today’s record oil prices and rising alarm about global warming make it time to produce the fuel.

Reuters