By Alex Felsinger •
November 10, 2008
Best part? All you need is a one day course and a powered-parachute license to fly the Skycar.
“I started making a paramotor on wheels that you sit on and take off and it suddenly occurred to me, ‘Why not just have a car that does everything?’” said Gilo Cardozo, who owns a Wiltshire-based company called Parajet.
By Ariel Schwartz •
October 21, 2008
The promise of commercial algae fuel is getting closer to reality with GreenFuel Technologies’ announcement today of a $92 million deal to build algae greenhouses. The project will capture CO2 emissions from a cement plant in Jerez, Spain and use them to grow algae for food, fuel, and feedstock.
By Ariel Schwartz •
October 16, 2008
Plenty of companies are working on creating biodiesel from algae, but this is the first I’ve heard of an individual making homemade algae-based biodiesel . Australian Charlie Trafford has been making biodiesel from cooking oil for many years, but he recently decided to switch over to a more sustainable source— algae.
By Adam Shake •
September 18, 2008
Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution from Adam Shake.
Bill Gates has his hands in the green again, but this time, it’s algae. His Investment Firm, Cascades Investments LLC, along with the Rockefeller family’s venture capital firm Venrock, the WellcomeTrust, and Arch Venture Partners have invested a total of 100 million dollars in Sapphire Energy.
Sapphire Energy, a San Diego based company that launched in May of 2007, says that it’s goal “is to be the world’s leading producer of renewable petrochemical products.” The companies website goes on to say “Critically important, there is no ‘food vs. fuel’ tradeoff. The process is not dependent on crops or valuable farmland. It is highly water efficient, delivering 10 to 100 times more energy per acre than cropland biofuels.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Sapphire is working towards a 10,000-barrel-a-day algae-based oil facility, and can now concentrate on production and engineering problems. Meanwhile, Gates’s involvement may signal a broader interest in alternative biofuels.”
By Ariel Schwartz •
September 9, 2008
You may remember Solazyme from my post a few weeks ago about its plan to mass-produce algae biodiesel in a three-year time frame. Now the innovative company is taking algae fuel a step further.
Solazyme announced today that it has produced the world’s first algae-based jet fuel. The product passed all testing specifications for Aviation Turbine Fuel— which means that the aviation kerosene has passed all the major hurdles to creating a jet fuel that is compatible with the current commercial and military infrastructure.
By Ariel Schwartz •
September 3, 2008
Algae fuel is getting another boost with the announcement of a $3 million grant to create kerosene-based aviation fuel derived from the substance.
Arizona State University researchers have already moved past the laboratory stage on the project and are working on a pilot scale production system. The research team says that cost reduction benefits are greater than with kerosene produced from petroleum.
