After maiden commercial flights this week on a blend of algae biofuels, Sapphire Energy is building a plant to produce more of the "green crude oil" to replace fossil fuels in diesel and jet fuels.
Sapphire Energy has been awarded a USDA loan guarantee to build a $135 million plant in New Mexico that will produce algae "green crude oil" – for use in transportation.
The project is intended to advance a US industry that makes commercial-scale biofuels to fight climate change, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and create rural green jobs.
Sapphire will build an algal biorefinery to produce "drop-in" biofuels – which simply substitute for fossil fuels without the need for new delivery infrastructure or engines.
The plant will produce at least a million gallons of algal oil a year and will be refined by Dynamic Fuels on Louisiana’s Gulf coast.
USDA’s Biorefinery Assistance Program issued a 80% guarantee on a $54.5 million loan in 2009, which has now closed.
The US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) has a goal of producing 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year by 2022, of which 21 billion gallons must be advanced biofuels such as algae.
USDA is working with the Department of the Navy and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to incorporate biofuels into their fuel mix.
Loading...
Solydra story is opening a huge can of worms at the DOE LOAN GURANTEE LOAN PROGRAM. Its not just about the Solar loan guarantee program. Look at all the millions in fees collected by the DOE LOAN GUARANTEE PROGRAM with projects 20% completed. Also, an audit needs to be done on DOE GRANTS to individuals from the DOE that are now working in private industry. Very incestuous! There needs to be an audit on each individual loan program for amount funded and results!
The US taxpayer has spent over $2.5 billion dollars over the last 50 years on algae research. To date, nothing has been commercialized by any algae researcher.
The REAL question is: Does the DOE BIOMASS PROGRAM really want the US off of foreign oil or do they want to continue funding more grants for algae research to keep algae researchers employed at universities for another 50 years?
In business, you are not given 50 years to research anything. The problem is in the Congressional Mandate that says the DOE can only use taxpayer monies on algae research, NOT algae production in the US. So far, research has not got the US off of foreign oil for the last 50 years!
anonymous