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Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production

by claybodie | January 24, 2008 at 09:44 pm | 522 views | add comment

I've been doing some investigation into a new algae biodiesel company. See more of the story at Gas 2.0:


Today I had a few minutes to speak with Harrison Dillon, President and CTO of Solazyme. But with all the publicity around the film Fields of Fuel (see earlier post), I didn’t have much of a chance to get into a detailed discussion. When I approached him, Harrison was surrounded by a group intent on elucidating the not-so-subtle points of using biodiesel (such as, does it require conversion to run in a diesel engine?).

In our brief conversation I was able to learn that Solazyme is going to combine cellulosic ethanol and algae biodiesel production technology, which they think provides a more positive energy balance than either one alone. Solazyme will be buying sugar, including cellulosically-derived sugar produced by cellulosic ethanol companies, to feed to their algae. They’re basically short-circuiting the cellulosic ethanol process and diverting the sugar to what they say is a more efficient process: growing micro-algae.

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January 24, 2008 at 09:44 pm by claybodie, 522 views, add comment

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