GreenFuel Technologies Corp., which has raised about $20 million in
venture capital from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Polaris Venture Partners to develop technology for creating biodiesel and ethanol from algae, moved a step closer to commercializing a multilayer, environmentally friendly strategy for producing renewable fuels while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gases.
GreenFuel was born out of
technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for feeding carbon dioxide and other waste gases from fossil fuel-burning electrical-generating plants into closed ponds to accelerate algae growth. The algae is then processed into ethanol and biodiesel, leaving a byproduct of animal feed. Many biodiesel promoters believe that growth properties of algae make it a much more promising feedstock than seed crops currently used to refine biodiesel.
GreenFuel has had a prototype plant working in conjunction with a small power plant on the MIT campus for a couple of years, but the company recently conducted a
trial with a commercial natural gas plant operated by Arizona Public Service Co. and grew algae successfully at growth rates 37 times higher than corn and 140 times higher than soybeans using carbon dioxide. The results are the first strong evidence the company has put forward to demonstrate that the technology is commercially viable. The two-week field test of GreenFuel's proprietary 3D Matrix System demonstrated that larger surface areas than the company's lab prototype significantly accelerated algae growth, with the gases providing an excellent source of photosynthesis fodder.
The company said it will next test the system in a coal-powered plant also operated by APS.
- Clifford Carlsen
See December 2006 story from Tech ConfidentialSee April 2006 story from The DealSee GreenFuel Technologies press releaseFor more, see
Greenoptions blog
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