Scientists Plan Algae ‘Alchemy’ to Turn Paddies Into Oil Fields

Bloomberg Business Week
April 19, 2010, 5:15 PM EDT
By Shigeru Sato and Yuji Okada

April 20 (Bloomberg) -- As Japan’s rice fields turn fallow and its farming communities decline, a new army of workers is preparing to make the countryside fertile again. This time the crop is motor fuel and the laborers are microscopic algae.

At least 75 developers globally are studying algae, which has the potential to generate more energy per hectare than any other crop used for making fuel, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The technology has attracted the U.S. Department of Energy and big oil including Exxon Mobil Corp., which plans to spend as much as $600 million on research over five years.

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