That’s a choice drivers could make at the pump one day. But for algal biofuels to compete with petroleum, farming algae has to become less expensive. Toward that goal, Sandia National Laboratories is testing strains of algae for resistance to a host of predators and diseases, and learning to detect when an algae pond is about to crash.
That’s a choice drivers could make at the pump one day. But for algal biofuels to compete with petroleum, farming algae has to become less expensive. Toward that goal, Sandia National Laboratories is testing strains of algae for resistance to a host of predators and diseases, and learning to detect when an algae pond is about to crash.
These experiments are part of the new, $6 million Development of Integrated Screening, Cultivar Optimization and Validation Research (DISCOVR) project, whose goal is to determine which algae strains are the toughest and most commercially viable.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy sponsors the project, and Sandia’s partners are Los Alamos (LANL) and Pacific Northwest (PNNL) national laboratories, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Arizona State University (ASU).
Read more at DOE / Sandia National Laboratories
Photo: Sandia National Laboratories biochemist Carolyn Fisher examines a beaker full of microscopic algae eaters called rotifers being grown for the DISCOVR project.(Photo by Dino Vournas)
