New US algae-for-biodiesel start-up announced - News - Auto Industry

PetroSun Drilling Inc., an American provider of oilfield services to oil and natural gas producers, has formed Algae BioFuels Inc. as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Algae BioFuels will be engaged in the research into and development of algae cultivation as an energy source in the production of biodiesel, with R&D facilities based in Arizona and Australia.
The current development of algae-based renewable fuels derives in part from research carried out in the late 1990s by the Office of Fuels Development, a division of the US Department of Energy, which funded a programme from 1978 to 1996 under the guidance of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory known as the "Aquatic Species Program", which investigated high-oil algae that could be grown specifically for the purpose of biodiesel production. Some species of algae were found to have in excess of 50% oil content and to show extremely rapid growth rates