Hi-speed campus plans

(or up to 150 million gallons per year) to BioAlternatives as a feedstock for fuel production. The partners plan to locate algae production and biodiesel refinery facilities in Louisiana. In October 2007, the Chevron Corporation announced a collaborative research project with the DoE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to explore the production of transport fuels, including jet fuel, from algae. The collaboration is the second project to be set up under a five-year strategic agreement between Chevron and NREL — the first involved 'bio-reforming', i.e. production of oil from decomposing biological matter. For the DoE the program marks a return to algae biofuels more than a decade after the Aquatic Species Program was shut down. Now Shell wants to make use of the existing expertise of HR Biopetroleum, which is already growing algae on the coasts of Hawaii, and test the technology for its efficiency and commercial viability. " Algae have great potential as a sustainable feedstock for production of diesel-type fuels with a very small CO 2 footprint, " said Graeme Sweeney, Shell Executive Vice President Future Fuels and CO 2. The company stresses the exploratory nature of the project, which will be accompanied by academic research. One of the goals, for instance, is to screen algal species in order to identify those that are most suitable for fuel production. Thus, there is no guarantee that the venture will ever lead to commercial fuel technology. Sceptics have pointed out that Shell's foremost objective may be to buy green credentials in times of increasing climate change awareness. However, if the test phase does come up with a commercially viable way of producing large quantities, the oil giant would surely grasp the opportunity. A 1,000 hectare site is already planned, and if that one gives satisfactory results, a 20,000 hectare facility will follow. While Cellana and the associated scientists are exploring the options, increasing petrol prices might do their bit to make algal biofuels economical after all. Michael Gross is a science writer based at Oxford. He can be contacted via his web page at www.michaelgross.co.uk Medical researchers in London are hoping to benefit from a new campus right next door to Britain's first high-speed railway linking the city to Paris and Brussels in around two hours. Later this year, the high-speed line between Brussels and Amsterdam is due to open, bringing much of the Netherlands in closer links to London …