Contender 8: Algae Bioreactor Generates Biofuels from Smokestack CO2

GreenFuel Technologies:
cleans Smokestack emissions
by bubbling exhaust through
algae-filled tubes

Contender 8: Algae Bioreactor Generates Biofuels from Smokestack CO2

at GreenFuel Technologies, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Former International Space Station researcher Isaac Berzin,
along with his team of scientists from Harvard, Columbia,
and MIT, have found a truly bizarre secret weapon
in the fight against carbon dioxide emissions: algae.

Yes, algae. Not only does it “eat” CO2,
it can also be used as a clean, renewable biofuel.

The researchers at GreenFuel Technologies have
developed an emissions scrubbing system that
takes advantage of this happy coincidence.

Power plants that use Berzin’s system not only
reduce their carbon footprints and gain
valuable emissions credits, but they can also
use the algae-based fuel themselves or
sell it on the open market.

If it sounds like a pipe dream, it’s not.
The company has already launched small projects
in Arizona, Massachusetts, and New York.

A large U.S. utility company and a major U.S. power
generator are poised to begin partnerships with GreenFuel
to build 1,000-megawatt plants, which will each generate
over 100 million gallons of biofuel a year;

the owners of a 2,200-megawatt coal plant are also ready
to try out the technology.

With $20 million in venture capital investment
in the bag, GreenFuel is one to watch.

plentymag.com, Feb/Mar/07, spotlights 20 Green companies (pdf)