Could pond scum break our oil dependency?

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Story Published: Sep 1, 2008 at 12:25 PM PDT

By Molly Shen

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SEATTLE -- Could you get more mileage out of your car by turning to pond scum?

New investment money is fueling research at the University of Washington to turn algae into biofuel.

UW Professor Rose Ann Cattolico has been researching algae for decades and calls the potential "truly extraordinary."

Of the thousands of types of algae, she believes she's pinpointing the ones that can become biodiesel, powering cars, trucks, trains and planes.

"Instead of drilling in the Arctic, here's where we should spend our money," Cattolico says, holding a flask of brown algae. "That's my personal opinion."

There are other research projects to turn algae into fuel, in our region and across the country.
But the UW research just got the attention of an east coast investment company called Allied Minds.

The UW and Allied Minds just formed a startup company called AXI. The goal is turn algae into fuel.

Erick Rabins is AXI's General Manager, and an employee of Allied Minds.

"That whole process can be done - I wouldn't say anywhere, but many places. It's not necessarily tied to where the oil happens to be in the ground," Rabins says.

Dr. Cattolico and her students grow small flasks of algae while carefully controlling the temperature, food and light.

They now need the technology to grow the algae in big vats and extract the precious oil, or lipids.

"What we're looking for the needle in the haystack," Cattolico says. "That particular organism that gives us the highest amount of lipids per unit. One that grows really fast and has the quality of lipids that we want."

Cattolico believes we're a decade away from not needing oil for fuel and that the key will be algae.

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