Shell plans algae farm for biofuel

I am always a little skeptical whenever I see an announcement that one of the oil companies is venturing into renewable fuels. This could be interesting though considering the sheer amount of funding that an oil company could put forward to advancing algae biodiesel technology.

A day after breaking ground in Texas on the nation's biggest oil refinery, Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced it is building a fuel refinery of a very different type: an algae farm and laboratory in Hawaii that will produce vegetable oil that can be converted to biofuel.

The project on the Kona coast of Hawaii will be a demonstration and test facility, Shell's U.S. president said. But if it works as planned, Shell and Hawaiian partner HR Biopetroleum Inc. could build a full-scale production plant elsewhere that could produce commercially available biodiesel based on algae oil in the near future.

Shell plans algae farm for biofuel