University of Arizona receives large grant for algae jet fuel research

University of Arizona (UA) researchers have been granted $8 million (€5.8 million) by the US Department of Energy to continue researching how to use algae to make biofuel, animal feed and plastics over the next four years.

'Our goal is to provide algal biofuel at a production cost equal to the cost of petroleum,' says Randy Ryan, assistant director of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, a component of UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The researchers are using the Regional Algal Feedstock Testbed to develop continuous algae production.

With algae production, Ryan says it should be able to address three major areas of interest to the general consumer: 'One, hopefully we can replace petroleum as a major source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; number two, that we can produce animal feed from the residual biomass and, thirdly, aim to boost an agricultural industry that is vibrant and produces fuel here in the US.'