New Algae Biofuel from Sapphire Energy “Chemically Identical to Gasoline”
by Matthew McDermott

‘Green Crude’ Milestone
In what it calls its most significant milestone yet, Sapphire Energy , claims it has succeeded in refining a high-octane gasoline from algae that is chemically identical to crude oil. According to Sapphire Energy, “The resulting gasoline is completely compatible with current infrastructure, meaning absolutely no change to consumer’s cars.” This is of course in addition to the benefit that their Green Crude is a carbon neutral fuel.

Photo: treehugger.com

According to the original article in The Guardian, Sapphire won’t reveal exactly what sort of algae they are using, but it is suspected that they are using a genetically-modified cyanobacteria (blue-green algae).

Sapphire believes it will be able to make commercial quantities of this fuel within three to five years.

‘Completely Compatible with Current Infrastructure’
Assuming that Sapphire succeeds in making commercial quantities of their ‘green crude’—and considering the recent influx of cash into the firm, the money is certainly there to make that possible—is maintaining our current transportation infrastructure really an environmentally good thing to do?

Obviously, our petro-coal-natural gas addiction is leading us down the dirty path to an increasingly inhospitable (perhaps fatal) future. But will simply swapping petro-based gasoline with ‘green crude’ address the other interconnected environmental problems we currently face?

Switching to cleaner energy does nothing directly to address over consumption of natural resources, biodiversity loss & habitat destruction, the gross land-use disaster that is suburban sprawl, and soil degradation resulting from destructive agricultural practices. Nor will it address the 10,000 pound elephant in the environmental room: Unchecked population growth.

source: treehugger.com

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