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Algae cultures that could lead to green oil products are being grown in a UC San Diego laboratory.


They call it "green gold," and its proponents are betting that the light, sweet crude oil that can be extracted from farm-cultivated algae will help the world to cut its dependence upon dirty and increasingly expensive gasoline and diesel fuels that are extracted from fossil fuels.






And, on Tuesday, San Diego -- which envisions itself as the green equivalent of the traditional oil industry's Houston -- unveiled a "broad-scale research effort" to turn that dream into a reality.


Though no dollar figures for financial support were discussed during Tuesday's press event on the UC San Diego campus, the research effort will build upon the creation earlier this year of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology. The center was created to facilitate green fuels research being conducted by 272 scientists at UC San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute and other San Diego universities, research organizations and for-profit companies.


SD-CAB estimates that algal research in San Diego County already generates $16.5 million in payroll and $33 million in overall economic activity. Tuesday's announcement of an even broader research and development effort was made by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.


"By sharing and facilitating the interactions of these multiple researchers through this center, we hope to make sustainable algae-based fuel production and carbon-dioxide abatement a reality within the next five to 10 years," Fox said. "This consortium will strengthen our ability to obtain grants and attract resources to the area.  Algal biofuels will allow us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and other economies, and will provide opportunities for a new economy and workforce."


It is a tall order, but San Diego claims to have the R&D nucleus needed to move toward that goal.


The Xconomy blog counts at least nine algal research efforts under way -- including work being done by defense contractors SAIC Corp. and General Atomics (which is better known as the creator of the unmanned Predator aircraft in service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan).


We wrote about one of those companies (Sapphire Energy) last May, as well as a California Energy Commission grant to another company (albeit, not in San Diego) that is pursuing algal research.
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Tags: Alternative Fuels, Biofuels, Energy Companies, Hydrogen, Methanol, Oil, Tax Incentives, Algae Refining, Alternative Fuels, Green Gold, Green Living, Legislation, Oil Prices, Sapphire Energy

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San Diego Unveils Algae Coalition To Advance "Green Gold" Research was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.