Sapphire energy launches green crude

A start-up alternative energy firm has announced that it has found a way to convert sunlight, CO2 and microorganisms such as algae into gasoline. The San Diego, Calif.-based company also disclosed that it has raised $50 million from Arch Venture Partners, Venrock, and the Wellcome Trust. The company, they say, started with 3 friends discussing a very interesting question: “Why is the biofuel industry spending so much time and energy to manufacture ethanol — a fundamentally inferior fuel?” The friends – a bioengineer, a chemist, and a biologist – set out to recruit the best minds they could find to collaborate with them on the project, and the results speak for themselves. They developed a unique platform using sunlight, CO2 and microorganisms such as algae” to produce the fuel, without the use of arable land.

The advantage of this approach is that the fuels can be integrated into existing transmission infrastructure and can run in cars or planes without modification. Now we surely need more solutions like these in our quest for a cheaper and alternate fuel.
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