May 2009 - Algae Biofuels and Carbon Recycling Paper Published
Testifying before Congress in early May, Utah State University researcher Jeff Muhs urged greater federal research investment development of mass-scale technology to create algae biofuels. At a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, Muhs also released a new report
July 2008 - USU researchers advance algae biofuel research; team with industry leader
Researchers at USU Energy Lab are developing a new approach that could to dramatically improve the amount of oil-rich algae that can be growth in both biofilm and suspended aqueous solutions, a breakthrough that will help advance algae as a viable biodiesel alternative to traditional terrestrial crop feedstocks like corn. USU researchers recently demonstrated that the volumetric growth of algae can be dramatically improved by increasing the cell density of algae suspended in water or affixing the algae to biofilm through a process that better distributes sunlight over a larger surface area. The Lab is now designing a low-cost, proprietary bioreactor configuration to take advantage of these developments. As a result of this work, USU has garnered the support of the world’s largest supplier of low-cost optical-grade backlighting materials, Mitsubishi, to co-develop a new class of planar waveguides capable of uniformly distributing concentrated sunlight over an extremely large area inside USU proprietary reactors.
July 2008 - Greenfire Energy, LLC sites study and state investments in USU research as reasons for moving to Utah
As the pace quickens in the race to develop alternative feedstocks for biofuels, a CA-based start-up company has chosen to headquarter its operations in Utah and focus on algae as its preferred feedstock. “We made a strategic decision to locate in Utah, primarily to take advantage of the research infrastructure and creative talent assembled at USU Energy Lab, which is partially funded by the state-ran USTAR program. With the growing controversy over using traditional crops like corn for fuels, we believe algae will quickly emerge as the most likely second generation biofuel to find widespread acceptance in the U.S. Utah’s decision a few years ago to invest research dollars at USU in this area was both fortuitous and extremely well-timed.” Said Randy Balik, Greenfire’s VP of Business Development. Balik also noted that a recent study by the U.S. Department of Energy placed Utah on a list of the top five states in the U.S. for large-scale solar energy development – having a unique combination of abundant sunlight and flat and readily-accessible land near existing energy distribution corridors. “Since algae is essentially a fuel produced from sunlight, we believe Utah is poised for explosive growth in large-scale sunlight-to-algae biofuels deployments in the coming decade. We want to be on the leading-edge of Utah’s green-collar jobs growth.”
April 2008 - USU partners with U.S. Department of Energy National Lab on algae research.
USU Energy Lab recently began work on research with the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory aimed at producing biofuels from algae. The sponsored-research project is an outgrowth of the state-funded USTAR research program at USU. The project's aim is to develop a unique, enclosed configuration for domestically growing algae both quickly and inexpensively.