This article describes a concept which could impact a variety of companies, countries or industries. To see what companies and articles reference this concept page, click here.

TOP CONTRIBUTORS

J.B. Schag

Algal biofuels are a type of sustainable energy technology. Algal biofuels are currently (2009) believed to be the most viable technology to achieve the future production of large scale quantities of liquid fuels that could be used for both transportation and space heating, thus potentially replacing the bulk of "rock" oil currently used by human civilization.

Algal Biofuels are generally classified as "third generation" biofuel technology.

Microcellular algae is cultivated in photobioreactors[1]. The use of a modern photobioreactor allows the scaling up of production. It is the ability to scale up the production that promotes the economic viability of an algal biofuels project.

Historically, algae were cultivated in open ponds. The problem with pond-cultivation was that the yield was low due to the tendency of the algae to grow quickly on the surface of the pond and then form "mats" about 1/4 inch thick that blocked out any other sunlight. Low yields meant low cash flow from sales of finished product and low efficiency per investment dollar and space utilization.

In recent years algal biofuels companies have been successful in designing and constructing far more efficient photobioreactors that both orient the algae to sunlight more efficiently and also circulate the algae through the reactors without damage and thus greatly increase yields. Some companies have designed and tested photobioreactors that double the mass of algae in as little as 7 hours and maintain a 24/7 production cycle.

Photobioreactors have been designed and constructed that can accept waste carbon dioxide, from other types of carbon power production plants, such as coal-fired electrical plants, as a feedstock to provide "food" for the algae. This necessitates the construction of the photobioreactor in close proximity to the carbon dioxide source but provides a means of reducing the emission of so-called "greenhouse" gas in the form of CO2.

An extremely competitive space has developed as companies rush to develop and protect the intellectual property associated with algal biofuels such as the patented production processes and methodologies and the various "designer" strains of genetically engineered algae. Companies that successfully negotiate the algal biofuels space will be ideally positioned to dominate the energy industry in the post-PeakOil world.--PGSanalyst 17:34, January 28, 2009 (PST)

Many Algal Biofuels companies are currently (2009) still in their start-up phase. As such, some trade on the "pink sheets." An example of an Algal Biofuels company trading on the pink sheets is AUXM.PK.--PGSanalyst 23:13, January 28, 2009 (PST)