Just as ethanol producers have been able to market the co-product dried distillers grains (DDGs) as livestock feed, those folks producing algae for biodiesel want to find more uses for what’s leftover once you get the fuel out.

“The Departments of Energy and Defense have been interested in producing biofuels, both jet fuels and transportation fuels from algae,” Texas A&M’s Tyron Wickersham told USDA reporter Rod Bain. “We began looking into [by-product of algae] to figure out a way to market or place the co-product into some useful market that could make use of those nutrients, and they naturally turned to livestock with an emphasis on beef cattle.”

Wickersham’s colleague at Texas A&M, Merritt Drewery, explained they are experimenting with feeding the algae by-product directly or mixing it with DDGs or cotton seed. “And this project actually told us that algae was palatable, because they ate it here.”

The researchers are already noting in their study that the algae co-product has a high-protein content.

Listen to Rod Bain’s report here: USDA Report on Algae Biodiesel By-Product as Livestock Feed