Joint effort on algal biofuel

Two South Island companies seeking to turn algae grown in sewage and other polluted water into fuel are combining their efforts.

Solray Energy and Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation are expected to try to tap dual revenue streams - from not only their capability to clean polluted water using algae, but from the provision of the algae as feedstock for the next-generation biofuel.

Marlborough-based Aquaflow has developed low-cost, low- energy, commercial technologies to harvest and store significant daily tonnages of micro algae, and in addition a wide variety of uses for such algae.

But Solray has separately developed a reactor and extraction process to detoxify algae and deliver a crude oil and other co-products, with the oil capable of being refined as biofuel.

Their work will target global demand for clean water, reduction of nitrogen and phosphates which have seriously degraded aquatic ecosystems, and renewable biofuels from waste.