Redscape - View topic - The future is....algae!!

The future is....algae!!

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Dag Hammarsjkold
Emissary

Fri Aug 14, 2009 1:51 am

Does anyone know or trust any decent start ups in the department of algae? This is going to be the next big thing and dare I say it, this planet's only hope for an alternative to oil.

Anyway, I'm looking to invest in a couple of solid algae companies. I know Shell and Chevron are playing around with the idea (see Solazyne and Celleno) but what about the more obscure companies such as Aqua Flow Binomics out of New Zealand or Inventure Chemical out of Israel?

I'd advise folks avoiding Imperium Renwables IMPR...problems with a former CEO.

Just curious to see what redscapers know on the topic. I'm sure more than me but that's not saying much.

_________________
For everything that has passed, "thankyou". For everything still to come, "yes!"

posts: 955 | location: New York | joined: 15 Oct 2002

Crow Cabinetmaker
Ambassador

Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:53 am

I'm curious about this stuff as well, especially with http://www.algalfarms.com/ not that far down the road from me. My wife even managed to get a baggie of "algae coal" and it adds a certain 'aroma' to the junk drawer in our kitchen. I should probably do more homework on the stuff, but at this point I don't have two pennies to rub together (let alone invest!)

posts: 782 | location: Surry Co., Virginia | joined: 15 Nov 2006 | medals: 2

Dag Hammarsjkold
Emissary

Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:53 pm

Crow,

Just start. Put $25 a month aside until you have $500 saved up. At that point, open up an account on Scottrade and dive in.

Think about it, if you're like most of us, you will waste $25 a month on McDonalds or pizza or some other assanine purchase.

Pay yourself first dude, get those little soldiers out there fighting for you on a daily basis. My dollars are my soldiers. Some days your troops will lose ground, most days they will hold the line and more often than not, they move forward and stay forward.

Just start! You won't regret it.

Dag

posts: 955 | location: New York | joined: 15 Oct 2002

Jaundiced Jaffe
Ambassador

Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:40 am

Hi Dag,

In today's pring Wall Street Journal in the Energy Section, under "Power Plays" there's a section on biofuels. I could not find it in the on-line version. There's a lot of money flowing into this area from venture capitalists and big corporations such as Exxon (investing $600 million) and Dow Chemical. However, none of the companies mentioned represent a way for the retail investor to benefit.

There's a company in CA called SunEco Energy claims that they can compete with oil at $20 a barrel. But they are private and won't even take VC money. I think it's an exciting technological development, but it's not clear to me how to profit from it.

JJ

posts: 1215 | location: Massachusetts, USA | joined: 08 Jun 2000 | medals: 6

Jaundiced Jaffe
Ambassador

Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:05 am

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23526/

Still no answer to your question on investment opportunity, but this technology stays very interesting.

JJ

posts: 1215 | location: Massachusetts, USA | joined: 08 Jun 2000 | medals: 6

Dag Hammarsjkold
Emissary

Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:52 pm

Good stuff J Jaffe. Thank you!!

posts: 955 | location: New York | joined: 15 Oct 2002

Dag Hammarsjkold
Emissary

Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:18 pm

I'm telling all of you, the future is algae!!! I think I heard earlier this week that Exxon is starting to get serious as well.

Save your sheckels!

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com.....a=e_du_pub

posts: 955 | location: New York | joined: 15 Oct 2002

Jaundiced Jaffe
Ambassador

Mon Feb 15, 2010 7:03 am

http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi.....el-problem

Quote:

Darpa's research projects have already extracted oil from algal ponds at a cost of $2 per gallon. It is now on track to begin large-scale refining of that oil into jet fuel, at a cost of less than $3 a gallon, according to Barbara McQuiston, special assistant for energy at Darpa. That could turn a promising technology into a market-ready one. Researchers have cracked the problem of turning pond scum and seaweed into fuel, but finding a cost-effective method of mass production could be a game-changer. ...

"Oil from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1 per gallon."

McQuiston said a larger-scale refining operation, producing 50 million gallons a year, would come on line in 2011 and she was hopeful the costs would drop still further – ensuring that the algae-based fuel would be competitive with fossil fuels. She said the projects, run by private firms SAIC and General Atomics, expected to yield 1,000 gallons of oil per acre from the algal farm.
...
Algae draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when growing; when the derived fuel is burned, the same CO2 is released, making the fuel theoretically zero-carbon, although processing and transporting the fuel requires some energy.

The industry received a further boost earlier this month, when the Environmental Protection Agency declared that algae-based diesel reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% compared with conventional diesel. The Obama administration had earlier awarded $80m in research grants to a new generation of algae and biomass fuels.

posts: 1215 | location: Massachusetts, USA | joined: 08 Jun 2000 | medals: 6

Dag Hammarsjkold
Emissary

Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:59 pm

Fellow Algaeists!!

Here is a partial list of companies currently doing algae I also have my eye on. For what it's worth, I plan to buy a few shares of OriginOil this week:

1. Exxon XOM 65.87 per share...they recently invested $600,000,000 in algae R&D. Impressive but the share price is pricey!!

2. Global Green Solutions, Inc. GGRN .11

3. Petro Algae, Inc. PALG (I don't know what to make of this one, they claim to be the first to bring algae to the commercial sector, keep an eye on this group. At one point its shares topped $35...www.petroalgae.com)

4. BioCentric Energy Holdings, Inc. BEHL .11

5. Valcent Products, Inc. VCTZF .34

6. International Energy, Inc. IENI .13

7. Petrosun, Inc. PSUD .5

8. OriginOil OOIL .34 I like what I'm reading about CEO Riggs Eckelberry!!

posts: 955 | location: New York | joined: 15 Oct 2002

Jaundiced Jaffe
Ambassador

Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:37 am

Here's an article from today's WSJ on alternative energy and its challenges ... about a 3rd of the way down is a summary for Algae.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....nal_report

I think that it is going to be very hard to pick winners in this industry. In the 90's everyone knew that the internet would be huge, but knowing which companies would be successful, and which would crater was incredibly difficult. Algae is even tougher because it is so dependent on political winds and also on the progress of other alternative energies.

Although I am most fascinated by scientific advances, it is the sector with which I have the least confidence in choosing investment winners because technological advances are such a wild card. Also, penny stocks with no revenue are incredibly speculative.

JJ

posts: 1215 | location: Massachusetts, USA | joined: 08 Jun 2000 | medals: 6

Dag Hammarsjkold
Emissary

Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:22 pm

Ye of little faith JJ.

C'mon!! Grab 1,000 shares of one of these babies and sit on it for two years. You'll never miss it.

Check out this character Riggs Eckelberry. This guy's got the touch.

posts: 955 | location: New York | joined: 15 Oct 2002

Jaundiced Jaffe
Ambassador

Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:15 am

Dag, I think you have to distinguish between faith in progress of humanity's technological march forward ( of which I have a tremendous amount) with faith in a particular company's financial structure, management team, technology vis-a-vis other companies, and ability to scale their development into something that is truly profitable before their money runs out.

But that's not why I write ... I saw this interview with Craig Venter -- arguably the most important thinking in this space -- this morning.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....nal_report

Quote:

Scalability is the biggest issue. There's over 200 algae companies, I think, in the U.S. alone. If we can't generate billions of gallons of fuel per year per facility, it's not going to work. But I think with the Exxon engineering team and their money, we have a chance to scale it up. Our optimistic view is on the order of a decade before you would have gasoline in your tank made from CO2.

posts: 1215 | location: Massachusetts, USA | joined: 08 Jun 2000 | medals: 6

Dag Hammarsjkold
Emissary

Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:09 pm

Good stuff. Very helpful and thank you.

dh

posts: 955 | location: New York | joined: 15 Oct 2002

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