How does Sapphire Energy produce fuel from algae?
• The process for making algae into fuel at a very high level is this: we grow the algae in open ponds with only sunlight, CO2 and non-potable saltwater in deserts. We harvest the algae and extract the oils from the algae biomass. We prepare for processing and refining using traditional refining methods. • By applying the principals used in bio-agriculture, Sapphire has been able to produce oil in algae that is highly branched and undecorated – the way that traditional crude is – to get biological crude that is molecularly similar to light sweet crude. This Green Crude is then processed at a refinery just as traditional crude to make all three major distillates – gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. • Sapphire applies the principals of bio-agriculture by developing algae which are optimized for growing an industrial organism. The seeds are bread to resist disease or predators, to make the algae easy to harvest, and to produce oils which leverage the existing refining, transportation and dist
