“It’s the co-products, stupid.??? -- Riggs Eckelberry of OriginOil A wave of algae biodiesel firms and and an accompanying amount of hype have surfaced recently.  Some firms are making outlandish claims about the volume of algae they can produce from an acre of land.  They'll be hoisted with their own petard soon enough. There are many pieces to the algae puzzle that seem like afterthoughts, but are actually crucial to the economics -- co-products, nutrients, harvesting, drying, and conversion technology. System design and algae strain (which seem to be the focus of most discussions) are important, but not the only components. Co-generation, co-location, and...

Scores of firms, startups and Fortune 500 companies alike, are working on algae-based biofuels.  Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested.  And so far, maybe a few thousand gallons of algae oil have been produced. The question is: Can algae be economically cultivated and commercially scaled to make a material contribution to mankind’s liquid fuel needs?  The jury is still out. Ghosts of NREL Algae Programs Past The basement of the marine biology department at the University of Hawaii has a hallway lit by a dim incandescent bulb.  At the end of the hallway is a cardboard sign with the faded letters “ASP�? written on it.  A creaky door leads to a dank-smelling room crowded...

It's plastic for paper at Dell. The Round Rock, Texas-based computer company said today that it will eliminate about 10 percent of the packaging materials that come with its PCs and laptops and will increase the amount that can be recycled. Over the next four years, this could eliminate 20 million pounds of corrugated cardboard and other annoying crud. In the place of cardboard, Dell will employ air bags made from high-density polyethelene, and a good portion of that plastic will come from recycled milk jugs and laundry bottles. Dell, of course, is a massive consumer of packaging materials. I once knew a stock analyst who used to have a source at the company that sold...

Oil prices are wallowing in the $65 a barrel territory these days, less than half the level crude hit this summer. It even dipped below $60 briefly. But the real number to think about is $40 a barrel, a former oil exec turned investor told me. Why? Well, $40 a barrel is the level that many Middle Eastern OPEC nations need to achieve to continue to fund their somewhat lavish public works and social programs, the exec estimated. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait aren't cheap countries to run. The economic explosion in the past few years has caused a building boom in Dubai, which in turn has meant more public works projects. Some of the newest, smoothest pavement in the world...

Fuel cells. Bring up those two words in polite conversation at a greentech conference and close to half of the people in listening range will say, "You've got to be kidding."

Sanjiv Malhotra, CEO of methanol fuel cell maker Oorja Protonics, would care to differ. His company, which he will showcase at the Greentech Innovations End to End Electricity Conference on November 17, makes large-scale fuel cells for forklifts and cellular towers. In specific applications, fuel cells do a far better job than batteries or diesel generators, he says.

First, look at fork lifts. A lead-acid battery pack can only power a fork lift for four hours before depleting. An expensive lithium-ion battery...

Venus. The goddess of love. And wastewater treatment. Biokube, a Danish company, is going to bring the BioKube Venus to California. The Venus is an efficient septic system that cleans your household wastewater and sewage to such a degree that the water -- after treatment -- can be used on the lawn. Denmark is a center for water technologies. "The average American home sprays around 15,000 gallons of water a year on their lawns," said Patrick O'Regan, head of the U.S. Business Development Center for BioKube. "This will more than take care of that." The Venus effectively works by cleaning the water to a much higher degree than ordinary septic systems. In ordinary systems,...

It’s a large mesh sack for raising tuna.

Hawaii Oceanic Technology has devised an aluminum and Kevlar sphere, measuring 162 feet in diameter, in which it hopes to raise sashimi-grade tuna three miles off the coast of Hawaii. The spheres sit 60 feet below the surface.

The company wants to plant these spheres in a 250-acre plot of ocean it has leased off of the coast of the islands. (Hawaii has an ocean leasing program.) A plot this size could generate 6,000 tons of tuna a year, which translates to $120 million dollars in gross revenue. (A single sphere could generate $20 million in revenue.) Plus, it’s a lot easier and more energy efficient for fishermen to extract tuna from...