Sapphire Energy eyes New Mexico for Algae Biofuel production
Another company, Sapphire Energy, is looking to set up its algae biofuel production in New Mexico.
Southern New Mexico and the El Paso area have drawn interest from companies hoping to create biofuel from algae. Now Sapphire Energy of San Diego, Calif., hopes to build a facility on the West Mesa Industrial Park in Las Cruces that could eventually grow to thousands of acres.
Sapphire Energy plans to grow algae to produce a renewable source of fuel from which gasoline and jet fuel can be made.
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Mendez said the facility in Las Cruces will have large ponds — similar to what you might see at a fish farm — in which the algae would be grown. When the algae is harvested, it would be dried and a machine would separate the solid material from the oil. The oil, called green crude, would then be refined just like crude taken from the ground.
“It would be refined into gasoline or jet fuel,” he said. “From there it would be distributed and enter the gas stream as you would know it.”
The exact process for the algae-produced fuel to enter the market hasn’t yet been worked out. But one possibility is to blend it with other gasoline so that the gas you buy at the pump might have 10 percent — or some other percentage — of renewable fuel.
