BioWorld Managing Editor

First, there was ethanol. Then there was cellulosic ethanol. Now, there is algae.

More than 200 companies already have jumped into the algal-biofuels arena, with investments and research coming from Big Oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell plc, BP plc and Chevron Corp., and airlineslike Virgin Airlines, Boeing, Japan Airlines and New Zealand Airlines.

Because of algae fuels' potential for high oil yields, many people in the renewable fuels industry have abandoned their earlier pursuits of biofuels and are placing all hopes in these microorganisms. Algae are rich in oil, can grow on marginal land and water, and also have environmental advantages as they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrates and phosphates while releasing oxygen. They have a high energy content, are fast-growing, and the yield of algae is significantly higher than that of any traditional crop.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that algae may have the capacity to produce 100 times more oil per acre than soybeans used for biodiesel. The actual fuel yield of algae is 819 gallons per acre, and that number could increase as more developments are made. Chinese tallow comes in at 699 gallons per acre, but popular feedstocks do not come close to such a high yield. Future predictions for algae yields are as high as 20,000 gallons per acre.

"There's a lot of energy out there," said Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's Nigel Quinn in an article on the Energy Biosciences Institute website. "It's very easy to grow - all you need is sunlight and water. But with fuel from algae, it's all about the economics. In order to cultivate and convert algae to oil, you need huge systems."

The biggest challenges for algal-based fuels are growing enough tomeet ever-increasing energy needs, as well as determining a cost-effective algae-to-fuel process.

"Algae research was once considered the fringe of the fringe, but finally the world has come to see its incredible potential," Sammy Boussiba, of the Microalgal Biotechnology Laboratory at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Israel's Ben-Gurion University, told The Daily Green. The institution has a partnership with Primafuel Inc.