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No, not flight, not yet. But Solazyme—the mavericks who make their algal oil in the dark—have produced a jet fuel that passes the ASTM's standards for "aviation turbine fuel," otherwise known as jet fuel. This makes it the first such bio-kerosene from algae, being earnestly sought by the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (better known as DARPA) as well as the U.S. Air Force.

In addition to not freezing at high altitude as biofuels are prone to do, the testing by the Southwest Research Institute shows that it has the same flashpoint, viscosity and stability as regular Jet A. Most importantly, it has the same density—a key characteristic that other alternative fuels, such as those derived from natural gas or coal, lack.

That doesn't mean Solazyme Jet A will be showing up at airports anytime soon, much to  the chagrin of airlines (not to mention their passengers) since they are taking a beating both in fuel costs (currently more than $3 per gallon) and environmental impact—it still costs more than fossil fuel and Solazyme doesn't own the infrastructure to produce much of it. "If we had our own equipment we could make millions of gallons," says CEO Jonathan Wolfson. But the "capital involved in owning that equipment is massive."

It does mean, however, that there's a new biofuel to flight test—Boeing would need 1,000 gallons to test it in its aircraft—and one that doesn't require clearing rainforests for palm oil plantations or vast new plantings of babassu nuts. All it takes is some algae in a 30-foot-tall fermenting tank.

Image: ©David Joyner/istockphoto.com

10 Comments

1. 1. hotblack 08:52 PM 9/9/08

   If a jet engine can run on this, how long before someone with half a brain for business grabs the reigns, scales the engines down and the quantities up, and capitalizes? Automobiles at their best are electrics, but this little bug might be an interesting development.

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2. 2. AndrewJayPollack 09:35 PM 9/9/08

   @hotblack - Its kerosene. It will run just fine in your basic Monitor wall heater and with a very slight difference any diesel truck engine. There is no need to scale down jet turbines.
   
   Algae are very good at eating, converting what they eat into a biproduct, and reproducing. They are also relatively easy to modify or breed so that you can alter what eat and what the biproduct ends up being. They are natures computers. You program them and you get something based on what you put in.
   

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3. 3. hotblack 11:18 PM 9/9/08

   Huh! No kiddin. Pretty darn cool.
   
   I'll look into it.
   
   Thanks!

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4. 4. grr8toad 02:55 PM 9/11/08

   Algae based fuel.. has anyone thought to run this by T Boone Pickens.??

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5. 5. janmashman in reply to grr8toad 10:25 AM 9/21/08

   Better to run it by Sir Richard Branson

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6. 6. C4X 12:52 AM 10/10/08

   I dare say that we are, here and now, bearing witness to the 'future solution' of commercial transportation's fuel crysis. Peak oil has come and gone, the future is here. Once substantial capital finds its way to the heart of this venture, and it is well known that 'easy oil security' is high on America's list of national security risks (hence capital is on the way), it shall be done.

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7. 7. RaneyOnline 11:24 PM 10/10/08

   The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (40,000 square kilometers), which is a few thousand square miles larger than Maryland. This is less than 1/7th the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000. Algae could be grown anywhere in the United States including the desert, the plains, mountains, or even out at sea.

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8. 8. whyzz 06:53 AM 11/18/08

   What's the rest of the story? What do algae eat? What do the excrete? Are they like water hyacinth that take over a lake to make navigation impossible, but can clean the water?
   
   What kind of equipment does Solazyme need, and can pond scum make biodiesel in one's own lower 40?
   

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9. 9. Hambo1935 04:32 AM 11/20/09

   I am using Bio-diesel in my OLD 1982 Mercedes and it runs so good that I am thinking that everyone should buy a diesel car instead of the Gas cars of today. What a future we have in the use of "our own" US " Products instead of the products of the middle east. Brazil is already using Ethanol in their cars and not using middle east products now.

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10. 10. phycotech 06:16 AM 10/17/11

    Its great that algae oil is used as jet fuel. It is also used as a food for humans of any any age.

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