OriginOil Inc. an algae fuel developer in Los Angeles, signed a research agreement with the Idaho National Lab, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, to establish industry standards for algal biomass. Standards for fuels from biomass are considered a an important step in making algal biofuels a competitive alternative to petroleum.
The company says under the agreement, it will provide the Idaho lab with its technology for evaluation that extracts oil from algae cells using a combination of electromagnetic fields and pH modification. The standardization project is expected to encourage the integration of algae-based biofuels with those derived from terrestrial biomass sources.
Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO, cited the Defense Department’s plans for increasing its use of alternative fuels as one reason for developing standards. “The U.S. Navy alone plans to achieve 50 percent use of alternative fuels in just eight years,” says Eckelberry, “a goal of eight million barrels of biofuels per year that must be blended from non-food fuels like algae.”
Idaho National Lab develops tests and deploys advanced renewable energy technology, including research on algae, says Deborah Newby, a molecular biologist at the lab. “This agreement is to assist OriginOil by conducting evaluations of processes and technologies that may help find solutions to converting algae into energy feedstocks more efficiently,” notes Newby, “by optimizing and standardizing various formats.”
Read more: Fuels Developer Claims Large-Scale Hydrogen from Algae
Photo: Higetiger/Flickr
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