Hatcher Team Creates New Process to Boost Biofuel Production from Algae

News@OldDominion (Old Dominion University, Virginia)

Just when you're sure that algae are a good source of biodiesel fuel, along comes a new scheme to wring even more alternative energy from the green scum.

During the past five years, researchers at Old Dominion University have devised ways to cultivate and harvest microscopic algae, and then to convert them into a biodiesel fuel by a proprietary one-step process. Now they have discovered another process - which they also hope to patent - that produces a versatile, algae-based liquid similar to crude oil.

Patrick Hatcher, the ODU Batten Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences and the executive director of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium (VCERC), said in an interview Friday, Aug. 20, that this new oil he and collaborators are producing can be refined into gasoline and jet fuel, as well as diesel fuel.

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