Regional partnership to develop algal biofuels gets backing of San Die...(be compatible with our current agricultu...)

Algae are widely regarded by scientists as the most promising source of renewable alternative transportation fuels. They are the fastest growing organisms for turning sunlight into chemical energy and can be grown on land that will not compete with food production, as do traditional row crops such as corn when used as a biofuel source.

Microalgae, including single-celled algae and cyanobacteria, grow quickly, need relatively lower nutrient inputs and derive their energy from sunlight. They can be grown at a very large scale and take carbon dioxide from the air as part of their growth process, making carbon sequestration another beneficial by-product. Compared with crops normally used to produce vegetable oil, such as soybeans or palm, algae can generate from 10 to 50 times the amount of oil per acre.

Furthermore, local experts on algae say growing algae does not require the use of arable land required for production of food crops. Algae can be grown in salt or brackish water, so they will not adversely impact limited fresh water resources. They can be grown at very large scale, the same as agricultural crops, and because they use nutrients efficiently and can extract the nearly all the nutrients they need from wastewater, very little fertilizer is required.

"What's needed to make algae a commercially viable source of biofuel is for scientists to identify and optimize microalgae to enhance their yields and their production of biofuel," said Stephen Mayfield, an expert on the genetics of algae who is a professor at The Scripps Research Institute and associate director of SD-CAB. "That's why the basic biological research of the institutions on the Torrey Pines mesa and the collaboration with local biotechnology industries within SD-CAB is so critical to the success of this effort."

Steve Kay, dean of UC San Diego's Division of Biological Sciences a
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