Algae explored as alternative source of fuel (AZ & NV)

[jpak]

http://www.mlive.com/business/ambizdaily/bizjournals/index.ssf?/base/abd-3/1179124802213310.xml

A group of dairy farm technology experts is building a $400 million biorefinery near Phoenix that could produce ethanol and biodiesel fuel from algae.

XL Dairy Group Inc., a privately held company based in Phoenix, expects to begin operations at its 7,500-head dairy farm in 2008. The farm will be in Vicksburg, about 100 miles west of Phoenix along Interstate 10.

The two-phase project will be completely self-contained, producing its own energy and cow feed from byproducts of the biodiesel and ethanol production.

The refinery, named XL Biorefinery-Vicksburg, will use corn for ethanol production during its first year, then shift to algae by 2009, said XL Dairy Chief Executive Dennis Corderman. The decision to use algae was in response to the high costs of trucking corn in from Midwestern farms. Algae has been studied for decades as an alternative biomass energy product.

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Oil from algae

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070513/BUSINESS/105130100

Gasoline prices over $3 a gallon, dire warnings about greenhouse effects and increased pollution bringing about global warming are causing some folks to think more about energy alternatives.

Claude Sapp, principal for Infinifuel Biodiesel, is one of those folks, and now he is working to turn the oldest geothermal plant in Nevada into a biodiesel processing facility, where camelina oil seed and even algae is becoming diesel fuel.

Sapp said any plant that produces high oil yields can someday power a vehicle.

"Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil instead of petroleum," he said. "We can get it from crambe, canola-type plants, oily seeds, even algae."

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[OKIsItJustMe]

1. The Companies in Question

XL Biorefinery: http://www.xldairygroup.com/

Infinifuel: http://www.infinifuel.com/