On Monday, the DOE announced that is had awarded up to $24 million to three research consortiums for the commercialization of algae-based biofuels. The three consortia include partners from academia, national laboratories, and private industries located across the country. Projects are expected to continue for three years.

The three awardees are:

• The Sustainable Algal Biofuels Consortium led by Arizona State University, will get up to $6 million for testing the acceptability of algal biofuels as replacements for petroleum-based fuels,  investigating the biochemical conversion of algae to fuels and products and analyzing the physical chemistry properties of algal fuels and fuel intermediates.
• The Consortium for Algal Biofuels Commercialization led by the University of California, San Diego, will receive up to $9 million developing algae as a robust biofuels feedstock by focusing on algal crop protection, algal nutrient utilization, and genetic tools.
• The Cellana, LLC Consortium led by Cellana, LLC, of Hawaii, will also receive up to $9 million for examining the large-scale production of fuels and feed from microalgae grown in seawater, new algal harvesting technologies with pilot-scale cultivation test beds, and for developing marine microalgae as animal feed for the aquaculture industry.