Biofuels, Contracts, algae
SAIC Gets Biofuels R&D Contract
Bruce V. Bigelow 12/16/08
It turns out that DARPA, the Pentagon’s R&D funding agency, awarded two biofuel development contracts last week, and both went to San Diego companies. As we reported, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $19.5 million contract to a consortium headed by General Atomics. Yesterday, the Pentagon said DARPA also awarded a $14.9 million contract to SAIC, the engineering and research company. Both contracts call for developing economical methods for making JP-8 grade jet fuel from algae.
Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call 858-202-0492
12/22/08 10:02 am
Algae hs been grown for 30 years in the lab with off-the-shelf existing technology. Why are we spending more money on research when algae can be commercialized today with all of-the-shelf existing technology?
2/2/09 3:09 pm
Since algae is known to produce substances that are fuels or can be turned into fuels then there is zero opportunity cost for the competition once the any company is commercially viable. Thus no one will invest.