Algae Energy Systems
Algae offer a unique synergy in the unconventional fuels arena, offering to turn waste streams from other industries, such as reclaimed water and CO2, into valuable fuels. To move the promise of algae in the production of unconventional fuels to reality, there is a need for research and development and large scale deployment studies.
The mission of EDL’s Algae-to-Fuels program is to perform this research and development and then demonstrate low cost (less than $2.00/gallon), large scale and commercially viable fuels from algae. On the path to obtaining this goal is to have more than 1,000 acres of algae ponds under cultivation at an oil production rate of 1,400 gallons per acre per year, or 1.4 million gallons per year. We foresee that the algae-to-fuels operation would be profitable, competitive in the marketplace, and unique. EDL plans to start full-scale, 1,000 acre, algae-to-fuels commercial production by October, 2012.
To support this mission, USU Research Foundation (USURF) has created a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary called Energy Algal Systems (ALG-EN). ALG-EN is in the process of evaluating four 10+ acre sites for a commercial, pilot scale, demonstration project in 2012. We have also started discussion with several large industrial users of algal oil and algae derived biofuels. Finally, ALG-EN completed its first external consulting project for Phyco2.
