Algae still too expensive
As you have probably gathered from reading this site, I’m a big fan of Algae and its potential to be the best biofuel out there. However, the widespread commercial development of algae seems to still be a few years down the road due to the the production costs.
At present the cost of producing biofuel from algae is too high,” said Professor Michael Borowitzka, project leader at Murdoch University. “It costs Aus$12 a kilogram, but we need to bring that down to Aus$1 a kilogram using well adapted algae strains and improving all the production processes.”
Professor Borowitzka has been working on finding elite strains of algae and developing applications for microalgae for 30 years and says the size of land required to produce fuel from algae was tiny compared to that needed for agricultural-based biofuels such as canola, sugarcane or corn. “For Australia to produce one per cent of biodiesel from algae you’d need a 100 square kilometre size plant – which is small compared to up to 2000 square kilometres required for the same amount to be produced from canola.”
Aus$12 to Aus$1? That’s a big jump. Luckily for us, there are many strains of algae so the solution could be as easy as just finding the right strain. Also, given that algae is just a single cell organisms, scientists can potentially alter the DNA of a strain of algae to help lower the production costs. However, if the high costs are not associated with the algae itself but with the refining process, well, advances in this field could be stalled for a while. I sure hope algae doesn’t go the way of the hydrogen car.
