OriginOil Inc., a developer of technology that converts algae into crude oil, says it has completed a study that suggests transportation fuels can be created cost-effectively based on existing algae-to-fuel techniques.
In fact, the company claims its analysis showed that the potential production cost for converting a blend of algae and waste feedstock to gasoline or diesel could be as low as $2.28/gallon, using the latest growth, harvesting and fuel-conversion technologies from OriginOil and similar companies.
‘This is no pipe dream – we now know that any algae producer can make gasoline and diesel right at the point of production and compete with petroleum,’ says Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil.
OriginOil analyzed the algae production process at scale. In the lowest-cost scenario, algae harvested using OriginOils Algae Appliance platform was blended with waste feedstocks and converted on-site to achieve a modeled production cost of $2.28/gallon for gasoline or diesel. This cost rises to $5.44/gallon when using pure algae feedstocks, the company says.
