Biofuel down under

Australian scientists have proved that they can consistently grow large quantities of algae for biofuel in open ponds without contamination.

Their work has received $1.89m (£1.14m) funding from the Australian government as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.

'This is the only biofuel project in Australia working simultaneously on all steps in the process of microalgal biofuels production, from microalgae culture, harvesting of the algae and extraction of oil suitable for biofuels production,' said project leader Prof Michael Borowitzka, from Murdoch University.

Prof Borowitzka said that due to the project’s success, construction of a multi-million dollar pilot plant to test the whole process on a larger scale will now begin in Karratha in the north west of Australia in January and is expected to be operational by July.

'We have achieved production rates of 50 tonnes per hectare per year, over half of which is converted to oil.