Petroleum giant Shell could be getting into the algae biodiesel business. The company is joining with Hawaii-based HR Biopetroleum to test
This story in the Financial Times says the pair will start by building a small research plant with hopes to make it a full-scale commercial plant of 20,000 hectares, capable of producing 1.2 million tons of oil per year:
Shell has held back from production of first-generation biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel from vegetable oil, focusing on second-generation fuels that can be produced from non-food plants or plant waste. It has argued that government support for biofuels ought to give greater incentives to second-generation products on the grounds they are likely to have much better environmental performance, particularly in cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
Graeme Sweeney, Shell’s head of future fuels, suggested that biodiesel from algae would need such support to be viable. He said: “The issue for us is that we are here investing in providing sustainable routes to biofuel with a low-carbon footprint.”
Shell officials admit there’s a lot of work to do to make the venture economically viable.
“In today’s world and in today’s agriculture, there is no more critical issue than energy,” Chelston W.D. Brathwaite, director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, told the annual conference. “[The biofuels push] could change the whole geopolitical balance in the world, if countries become more energy self-sufficient.”
January 17-18th, 2008 starts the conference season with the 
The Renewable Fuels Association holds its 
The weather might turn a bit warmer in the spring, but Florida’s still the place to be when the 
fuel production products and services. The conference will be designed to attract individuals and organizations/companies nationally.
The latest “Ethanol Report” podcast from the 
The 
