The technology website CNET.com mentioned Algae Biodiesel in a short segment. Considering that Algae grows quickly, is carbon neutral and the fuel (biodiesel) being produced will run in the most efficient internal combusion engines we currently use, this could well be the best alternative to petroleum.

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Santa Fe, New Mexico has plans to heat all of the buildings in downtown Santa Fe, with biomass energy.

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, refers to living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production. In this context, biomass refers to plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce for example trash such as dead trees and branches, yard clippings and wood chips biofuel, and it also includes plant or animal matter used for production of fibers, chemicals or heat. Biomass may also include biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel. It excludes organic material which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.

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The algae derived fuel will be an energy efficient replacement for fossil fuels and can be used in any diesel powered vehicle or machinery.

The record oil price increases since 2003, competing demands between foods and other biofuel sources and the world food crisis have ignited interest in algaculture (farming algae) for making vegetable oil, biodiesel, bioethanol, biogasoline, biomethanol, biobutanol and other biofuels. Among algal fuels' attractive characteristics: they do not affect fresh water resources, can be produced using ocean and wastewater, and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled. Algae cost more per pound yet can yield over 30 times more energy per acre than other, second-generation biofuel crops. One biofuels company has claimed that algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two-car garage than an football field of soybeans, because almost the entire algal organism can use sunlight to produce lipids, or oil.

By Nick Hodge

Going over the numbers from the last few days, it's easy to become a bit manic. Even the best solar stocks have taken about a 10% hit over the last four trading days.

We've been talking about cellulosic ethanol as a way of investing in renewable fuels for over a year now.

By now, anyone who follows the ethanol industry even semi-closely knows that cellulosic ethanol is the future of renewable transportation fuels.

But for all the talk and ballyhoo, a commercial plant has yet to be opened here in the U.S., though there are at least two under construction. Many claim to be the first, but here's what I found.

The first was announced in November 2006, is being built by the Broin Companies in Iowa, and will produce 125-million gallons per year (GPY) from corn fiber and corn stover.

Global Life Sciences Conference

Grand Hyatt New York
Park Avenue at Grand Central
New York City

We are pleased to announce the Global Life Sciences Conference scheduled on Monday, September 22 through Thursday, September 25, 2008.

Did you know that algae can double its cell mass every few hours? Jonathan Wolfson and Harrison Dillon became intrigued by algae's dynamic reproductive abilities when they first met in college. Years later the two college buddies went on to start the Solazyme corporation, using microalgae to produce clean-burning biofuel. Instead of recreating photosynthetic processes vital to algal growth, Wofson and Dillon feed sugar directly to algae - a much cheaper way of deriving algal energy. In fact, small fermenters at Solazyme are already mimicking large scale production of oil that can be used to make biodiesel, jetfuel and even industrial chemicals, plastics, and household cleaning supplies.

The buzz surrounding the Chevy Volt is increasingly overwhelming. An overview and update is certainly in order.

It was only five years ago when General Motors product chief Bob Lutz said that hybrid cars don't make "economic or environmental sense."

Has green lost its luster?

Of course not. Yet that seems to be the attitude of more than a few.

Sure, solar stocks have been battered over the past few months. But didn't the Dow (Index: DJI) go from over 13,000 to below 11,000 in the same time? Indeed, it did.

Jim Greenwood, president of Biotechnology Industry Organization, says the biofuels industry, namely starch-ethanol production, has become the scapegoat for skyrocketing food costs and shortages. MarketWatch's Val Kennedy reports.

Biofuel can be theoretically produced from any (biological) carbon source. The most common by far is photosynthetic plants that capture solar energy. Many different plants and plant-derived materials are used for biofuel manufacture.

Biofuels are used globally and biofuel industries are expanding in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The most common use for biofuels is as liquid fuels for automotive transport. The use of renewable biofuels provides increased independence from petroleum and enhances energy security.

Come join us at the Drug Discovery & Development of Innovative Therapeutics Conference on August 6th, 2008 in Boston, MA !!

Pharma Connections Worldwide will be hosting a Business Networking event on Wednesday, August 6th, 5:30-7:30PM at Anthony's Pier4 Restaurant, within walking distance of the IBC USA Event at the World Trade Center in Boston (being held August 4-7). It will be co-hosted by several business partners attending the show as well.

The Security Breakfast is intended to foster discussion and contacts between professionals with an interest in security and technology.

Please RSVP to Gordon Platt
gplatt@gothammediaventures.com

Join the Security Breakfast Linkedin Network
Link to http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/100508/4A0F035EC21E

Securing Energy & Chemical Infrastructure
Solutions to Fortify Production and Transport

Moderator

Scott Greiper
Managing Director
Legend Merchant Group

Panelists

Gianni Arcaini
CEO
Duos Technologies

Skip Elliott
Vice President of Public Safety and Environment
CSX Transportation

Brian Noone
Chief Security Officer
Keyspan Corporation

Joe Tadrick
Protective Security Advisory
Department of Homeland Security

SPONSORS
Duos Technologies, Inc.
National Grid
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By Elwin Green, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A biofuels developer is building a plant in Westmoreland County to demonstrate a process for producing ethanol from biomass and waste products.

Executives from Coskata, based in Warrenville, Ill., are joining Gov. Ed Rendell; Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa.; and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this morning to announce the $25 million project in Madison.

The plant, which will be on the grounds of the Westinghouse Plasma Center, will employ about 20 to produce ethanol from a variety of materials, including municipal waste, more cheaply and efficiently than producing it from corn, said Bill Roe, Coskata's president and chief executive officer, in an interview with the Post-Gazette.

By Nick Hodge

Hundreds of millions of years ago, the earth was covered with shallow oceans filled with algae and other simple critters.

As landmasses shifted and grew, water was displaced, leaving thick masses of algal residue that were eventually buried and compressed.

Skip forward a few eons, throw in some heat and pressure and ta da . . . oil.

Then, in 1859, Colonel Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, PA, unleashing not only oil, but an economic juggernaut that would dictate our way of life for years to come.

The world began to use oil for everything from fuel to waterproofing, and since then has consumed over a trillion barrels. With such furious consumption - and no way to make more - world oil reserves are set to dwindle.

Source: Science Blog

A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation’s transportation fuel if production can be scaled up.

Along with cellulose, the cyanobacteria developed by Professor R. Malcolm Brown Jr. and Dr. David Nobles Jr. secrete glucose and sucrose. These simple sugars are the major sources used to produce ethanol.

“The cyanobacterium is potentially a very inexpensive source for sugars to use for ethanol and designer fuels,” says Nobles, a research associate in the Section of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

By: Alexandra M. Goho, Technology Review

Researchers design a crop that can break down its own cellulose.

In an effort to help boost the nation's supply of biofuels, researchers have created three strains of genetically modified corn to manufacture enzymes that break down the plant's cellulose into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Incorporating such enzymes directly into the plants could reduce the cost of converting cellulose into biofuel.

By Nick Hodge

Sobering Up from Ethanol Inebriation

In the past two years the price of corn in the United States has more than doubled, driven partly by demand for alternative fuels such as ethanol.

That is one of the key pieces of data being used to fuel the growing debate now known as food versus fuel.
And that debate has been increasingly in the limelight as global food prices continue to climb, causing unrest in numerous locations around the world.

In the past few weeks alone we've seen riots in developing nations including Indonesia, the Philippines and Haiti.

But for all the now-known harms associated with using food for fuel, that action isn't the only thing causing food price angst.

Tests are under way to test running a single Rolls Royce Jet engine on Boeing 747 running on a blend of kerosene and bio-fuel. A 747 needs 16 tonnes of fuel to take off and to get to cruising height.

Biofuel (also called agrofuel) can be broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel consisting of, or derived from biomass.

Biofuel is considered by some as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security by providing an alternative to fossil fuels.

By Bob Drummond

High on a wall facing celebrity gene researcher Craig Venter's desk, there's a poster-size photo of unique colonies of bacteria that look like two luminescent sky- blue blobs. Venter's researchers made the microbes in his lab northwest of Washington by transplanting the entire genetic code of one species of bacteria into the cellular body of another type. Like horror-movie zombies, the intruder genes switched on and took control of their hosts.

Groundbreaking in its own right, the genome transplant was a practice run for Venter's more audacious project: creating a new life form -- in this case, a species of built-to-order bacteria --using only man-made DNA.

Ever wonder what it would take to turn your car into a green machine?

With biodiesel, turns out it's not as hard as you might think. We're in Asheville, NC with the folks from Blue Ridge Biofuels, who explain how to make a "seamless" transition to fueling up with biodiesel including where to fill up and how much it will cost.

We also find out what farmers and truckers think about the infrastructure of biofuel. And for all you DIY fans out there, we even catch a glimpse at how to fill up with plain, old, unprocessed vegetable oil.

Meet the people who are driving biodiesel forward.