Bloomberg Interview

Here's a Glen Kertz interview on bloomberg. Kertz says it takes 1700 gallons of water to get 1 gallon of ethanol from corn. He says it takes 3 gallons of water to grow a gallon of ethanol via algae.

National Algae Association

The National Algae Association is a non-profit organization comprised of algae researchers, algae production companies and the investment community who share the goal of commercializing algae oil as an alternative feedstock for the biofuels markets. The NAA gives its members a forum to efficiently evaluate various algae technologies for potential early stage company opportunities.

Also, check out this online presentation. Good overview of biofuels place in the energy marketplace as well as detailed information on algae as a biofuel source.

IEEE Article

Wow. The credibility meter is starting to tick up since we now have an article fro none other than the IEEE (website concerning Vertigro and Valcent. 

This is the article you will want to read to really begin understanding what Valcent is up to with Veritigro.  Excerpt:

Once the algae density reaches a predetermined level—say, 1.5 grams per liter of fluid—the harvesting begins. Over a 24-hour period, half the fluid is skimmed off, the algae is removed, and the water is returned to the tank. Because the skimming rate is set to match the rate at which the algae will grow back to their original density, the system becomes a continuous process, perpetually generating oil as long as CO2 and sunlight are available, says Kertz.

South Bend Local News Story

Here's a story from a local news station in South Bend on Vertigro.  Quote from Glen Kertz:  

“If you take a tenth of the state of New Mexico and converted in solar algae alone this would be all the transportation in the United States,” said Kertz.

Smart Company Mention

An Australian online magazine has a mention of Valcent's Vertigro technology highlighting that "algae has great potential as eco-energy becauseit grows rapidly and up to 50% of its weight is lipid oil that can beused as a biofuel."

Vertical Vegetable Growing

Interesting vertical vegetable system that Valcent products.

Excerpt:

A commercial module of one-eighth acre (5,445 square feet) is estimated to have capital costs of $565,000; using a wholesale price for leafy lettuce of $1.10 per head, may have gross annual revenues in excess of $1,300,000 with earnings before tax of approximately $505,000 supporting management's estimated 89% internal rate of return over 10 years.

Who owns what?

Trying to figure out the relationship between Global Green Solutions and Valcent. It appears that GGS markets products that Valcent develops.

Here's a graph of their stock prices for the last year. Their businesses must be sufficiently unrelated to produce such divergent pricing activity.


Update: here's a good overview of the relationship at The Energy Blog. Article from Oct 2006.

Vertigro by Vacent

I decided to start this blog to track coverage for a technology known as Vertigro which produces a an "algae derived fuel" and is made by Valcent Products Inc.

A CNN News Story prompted my interest.