Swamp fever

As corn and sugar biofuel production is criticised for putting food stocks at risk, could oil from algae really solve the energy crisis?
Has a sewage farm just outside the New Zealand city of Blenheim realised a solution to the world's energy shortages? Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, a local start-up, has patented an unique process to extract biofuel from raw sewage, and last year the country's minister for energy, David Parker, roadtested a car run on the oil of microscopic algae.

"Wild algae is one of the ubiquitous units of nature," claims Nick Gerritsen, a partner in the firm. "If you leave a bucket of water outside, the water will turn green as it is settled by wild algae. We realised very early on that we needed to create a model that took advantage of wild algae feedstocks." The biggest challenge was to catch what he calls "the little blighters", the algae that contain oils (fats) or lipids, in the work's outflow pipe, a cleansing process known as bio-remediation. In May 2006, the company produced what it claimed was "the first biodiesel crude from wild algae". The actual process is currently secret, although oil was extracted from algae that had been separated from water, which Aquaflow wants to leave clean enough to drink.
Self-sufficient.
Aquaflow had to first pass the energy balance test, creating a fuel that produced at least as much energy as went into producing it. The company went from pond scum to biodiesel in just over a year and says its fuel is now suitable for domestic use and transport. Furthermore, it claims its technology fits "on the back of a truck", and is cheap enough to be adopted anywhere in the world. "Our aim is to enable communities to use their wild algae feedstock and become as self-sufficient as they can," says Gerritsen.