Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Algae the new Arabs?
Could we produce diesel fuel from algae? It appears that we can. It is not yet been produced on a large enough scale to be a commercially viable solution as of yet. It is still an exciting step in the right direct to end our (foreign) oil dependency. They key here is it produces a fuel we already use thus there is no infrastructure changes we would have to make.
Solazyme, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based company that creates synthetic biological products, said Wednesday that its microalgae-derived fuel is the first renewable diesel to meet the American Society for Testing and Materials' D-975 specifications.
The fuel is chemically the same as petroleum-derived diesel, Solazyme said, so it can be distributed using the existing infrastructure. But it burns cleaner than petroleum-derived diesel, with fewer particulates and sulfur levels.
A 100 percent blend of Solazyme's diesel has been road-tested in a 2005 Jeep Liberty with a diesel engine, the company said in a statement.
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