Biodiesel made from algae is the future for diesel  in the opinion of Solix Biofuels. TDI users supporting grown renewables have often believed that 'algae based biodiesel' is  the Holy Grail when it comes to industrialized America producing enough fuel for our future. Solix is working on it ... and Popular Science gave us a peek at what they are doing.

“Here it is!” Jim Sears says with a tour guide’s come-see enthusiasm. I stop, my feet stuck in six inches of fresh powder outside the Old Fort Collins power plant, but the contraption before us doesn’t exactly inspire awe. Two parallel tracks, each about 60 feet long, protrude from the snow like the twin runners of a giant upended sled. A washing-machine-size box studded with dials and blank displays sits at one end. Nothing moves, nothing glows, nothing hums. The future of alternative energy sits silent before me. This is what’s going to make gasoline obsolete?

Sears chuckles at my confusion. “Nothing’s really set up at the moment,” he explains. “The bags aren’t hooked up. We don’t want to damage the equipment by letting it sit in the snow.” My eyes drift to the only spot of color in the entire crystalline scene: a wide acrylic tank off to the side that looks like an aquarium left to ferment in the windowsill. The water inside is seaweed green and so opaque it’s almost milky. I run my finger over the top, brushing off snow as I go. “What’s in here?” I ask. Sears eyes the tank fondly. “This is the first step,” he says. “This is where the algae starts to grow.”

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