Talk:Algenol

re "This article reads like a news release"

I wrote the original version of this page a few years back which was I think fairly neutral but it seems to have been replaced by text pretty much cut and pasted from the company website. Maybe I should edit it back a bit? Bit new to the editing stuff. Tim333 (talk) 00:06, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Notability

It was mentioned that there is a problem in that the article does "not indicate the importance or significance of the subject"

I belive Algenol or at least it's process is unique and significant. If you look at the biofuels page it says that biofuel is produced from recently dead organic matter while fossil fuels are from older dead matter. I think the Algenol process is basically unique in that the ethanol comes directly from living plants rather than dead organic matter. Or there may be other smaller operators researching the stuff but Algenol is the only company I've come accross. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tim333 (talk • contribs) 13:53, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

2023 Update on notability

I originated the article and thought them notable at the time as they were announcing a promising green energy alternative - ethanol form algae for similar prices to fossil fuel. This has however failed to happen and I'm ok with deleting the article. Tim333 (talk) 15:18, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Updated the article quite a bit today (but only through ~2017 published sources). While they haven't succeeded, neither have the other algal biofuel companies. There's a lot of PR reports to wade through, but it looks like they are still actively researching biofuels (and recieving funding) based on some US gov reports and probably still notable enough. Cyanochic (talk) 23:34, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Uniqueness

The development of harvesting processes which do not kill algae cells is not unique to Algenol. Google search anything like "harvest algae oil without killing" to get an example of what other companies and universities are doing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.79.174.121 (talk) 20:55, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

The process is unique when you consider that the product is ethanol, not oil! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.240.90.77 (talk) 18:27, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Scam

Here david-doty-31004 writes on october 8, 2010:

"Companies like Algenol, Solix, Solazyme and OriginOil say they are making – or on the road to making – between 2,000 and 5,000 gallons of fuel per acre." But they'll say anything.

To my knowledge, the demonstration from more than a decade ago of about 400/gal/acre/yr still stands as the record for actual lipids harvested over a two year period from an area of more than half an acre. If you can find better data, please report it, rather than more of this counterproductive hype.

Solazyme is not making fuels using photosynthetic algae. They are using algae to turn biomass into oils, and they sold their first 20,000 gal to Navy for over $400/gal. Does anyone know what the price is for their latest contract? Their CEO says photosynthetic algae would be 100 times more expensive.

Both OriginOil and Algenol promulgate one scam after another. Can't really learn anything solid about Solix (no peer-reviewed or independent sources of info), but it looks like they're essentially a reincarnation of GreenFuel, which blew $70M with nothing to show for it.

A peer-reviewed paper in a very recent issue of Science notes that the current mean global price of dry algae is $300,000/ton.

If someone wants to do some serious reporting on photosynthetic algae oil, an informative update on what Sapphire Energy is actually doing, what they are really spending, and how much oil they will be producing when, would be of interest to everyone in alternative fuels. They're the only company I know of that actually may be spending serious money at this point on photosynthetic algae, but they won't release any real info, so it could well be another scam, like GreenFuel. I suspect Seambiotic is still the only company in the free world actually producing photosynthetic algae at more than beaker scale."

Hogne (talk) 14:27, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

In reply to Hogne I agree a lot of the algae oil companies seem quite scammy and nowhere near producing fuel at competitive costs. Algenol is different however in that it produces ethanol rather than oil in a process that seems to have a much better shot at being cost effective. I admit they said they were going to have commercial production in Mexico a couple of years back and failed to do so, however their recent progress such as http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2013/03/11/algenol-hits-9k-gallonsacre-mark-for-algae-to-ethanol-process/ seems quite promising.

Tim333 (talk) 00:50, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, for now Algenol seems to be on the right track. However, our speculation and the research done by Hogne here doesn't warrant a deletion or anything. If he/she feels like it they can add a section that their claims are being disputed by this particular press agency, and we'll see if they deliver next year!--FUNKAMATIC ~talk 01:06, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

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