Dec

3

Marine Algae Genetic Engineering Begins

December 3, 2012 | 2 Comments

Biology scientists at University of California San Diego genetically engineered marine algae to produce five different kinds of industrially important enzymes and say the same process they used could be employed to enhance the yield of petroleum-like compounds from these salt-water algae.  The team believes with good reason that marine algae can be just as [...]

Nov

23

The Algae That Eats Other Plants

November 23, 2012 | 1 Comment

A research team at Bielefeld University has made a groundbreaking discovery that one plant, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, not only engages in photosynthesis, but also has an alternative source of energy: it can draw it out from other plants. Plants need water and light to grow using sunlight energy to produce their biomass from [...]

Nov

14

Algae Derived Bio Fuel Arrives at Retail Pumps

November 14, 2012 | 1 Comment

Beginning November 13th 2012, Propel Fuels, a California Bay Area retailer of renewable fuels and Solazyme, Inc. the renewable oil and bioproducts company, are selling algae-derived B-20 diesel fuel to retail pumps for the first time in history. The product is called Soladiesel®BD that has 20% Solazyme algae sourced biodiesel combined with regular diesel fuel.  [...]

Nov

1

Breakthrough! Algae to Oil In a Minute

November 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment

University of Michigan engineers lead by Phil Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and a professor of chemical engineering can “pressure-cook” algae for as little as a minute and transform an unprecedented 65% into bio crude oil. Savage said, “We’re trying to mimic the process in nature that forms crude oil with marine organisms.”  It’s [...]

Oct

3

Algae Is In the Starting Blocks Making Crude Oil

October 3, 2012 | 1 Comment

Wheat, rice, corn – those are the major food crops cultivated over millions of acres worldwide.  The products that are made from these range from simple staple food for people and animals to exotic pharmaceuticals and fuel products measured in billions of gallons.  Can algae compete? Sapphire Energy and its Green Crude Farm located near [...]

Aug

28

Green Crude Demonstration From Sapphire Energy Begins

August 28, 2012 | 4 Comments

Sapphire Energy, Inc., one of the world leaders in algae-based green crude oil production, today announced the first phase of its Green Crude Farm, the world’s first commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility, is now operational.  The algae farm will grow to 300 acres, about a mile by ½ mile using 56 metric tons of CO2 a [...]

Jul

18

Engineering Magnetic Algae

July 18, 2012 | 2 Comments

Last year researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) took a gene that is known to form magnetic nanoparticles in magnetotactic bacteria and expressed it in green algae, where a permanent magnet can be used to separate the transformed algae from a solution. That tasks facing algae production for fuels are: keeping algal production over [...]

Jun

20

Algae Get a Better Diet

June 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Till now the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms controlling oil biosynthesis and storage in micro algae and details of the oil biochemistry was rather limited.  Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists are now showing corrections for two long-held misconceptions about oil production in algae by proving that ramping up the microbes’ overall metabolism by feeding them more [...]

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