It will take time as you said perhaps 3/4 years to determine the commercial viability of algae fuel. In the meantime we need R&D to focus on renewable energy technologies in general, especially algae and non food crop related energy sources.

The US is by a long shot the leader in oil from algae, so lets hope your soon to be Obama Administration taps onto the possibility and encourages research and development by funding programs. Last year US$3 million were invested in algae companies with Sapphire Energy taking the biggest chunk of that 1/3 to be precise from the Gates Foundation.

My particular concern (but not only) is developing countries, algae could be a way for them to either make revenue from producing algae oil and selling it to industrialised countries or to secure some energy themselves. Either way it would benefit them.

By the way I am a fan of Oilgae too, and will be happy to read your industry report.
Thanks
Tony

It is interesting to read about the new tech from OriginOil, but I think it is important to wait for a while to check out whether this will produce oil and biodiesel on a sustainable scale and also whether further improvements are possible in this tech.

The problem with the algae energy industry has pretty much been the same as with the rest of the biofuels and renewable energy industry – there has been a lot of hype, and it becomes difficult even for industry professionals to determine what is going to last forever versus what is just a one-day-wonder. Let’s hope technologies such as these from OriginOil prove to be the former.

That said, 2009 might very well be a big year for oil fromalgae, though I’d presume that it could take another 3-4 years before any company is able to make this a success on a commercial scale.

I represent Oilgae, and we are a premier resource for information and interaction on oil and energy from algae. More from our site http://www.oilgae.com (and we have also come out with a comprehensive industry report on algae energy (more on this here http://www.oilgae.com/ref/report/report.html )

And by the way, I’m a fan of your blog – lots of useful stuff – keep up the good work, and here’s wishing you a very prosperous 2009!