Suitable algae-to-biofuel locations identified

Follow on from my previous blog on Is Biofuels our future - This story provides some in-depth in to Algae based biofuel production....

Scientists have, for the first time, identified a number of WA sites capable of producing large quantities of commercial biofuel from microalgae.

They say the best sites for big-scale algal biofuel plants include stretches of land south of Geraldton, south-east of Exmouth and large areas near Karratha and Port Hedland.

Professor Michael Borowitzka from Murdoch University’s Algae Research and Development Centre and Assistant Professor Bryan Boruff from the School of Earth and Environment at The University of Western Australia used geographical information systems (GIS) technology to study more than 2250 km of WA coastline from Lancelin to Broome and 170 km inland.

Their report, ‘Identification of the Optimum Sites for Industrial-scale Microalgae Biofuel Production in WA using a GIS Model’, was prepared for the WA Government-funded Centre for Research into Energy for Sustainable Transport(CREST) and is the first WA-wide study of its kind.

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