THE GREEN ENERGY BLOG

What is Biodiesel?

What is Biodiesel? Courtesy Idaho National Laboratory

Is Algae the Biofuel of the Future?

There are some signs that the algae-based fuel industry might be ready to bloom.

One of the nascent industry’s biggest and most well-heeled players, Sapphire Energy, announced last week that it would be producing 1 million gallons of diesel and jet fuel a year by 2011, double its initial estimates.

The La Jolla, Calif.-based company – with big-name backers like Bill Gates and the Rockefeller family – says it will be producing more than 100 million gallons a year by 2018 and 1 billion gallons a year by 2020 – enough to meet almost 3 percent of the U.S. renewable fuel standard (RFS) of 36 billion gallons.

But there’s a hitch: