Viable algal biofuels not imminent

THE CREATION of the world's first artificial cell by a team of scientists led by Craig Venter could aid efforts to make biofuels derived from algae a commercial proposition. But developers are playing down the chances of any rapid breakthroughs

The J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) said in May it had made such a synthetic genome by replacing the interior of a bacterium with artificially created material. The technology has potential applications in a range of activities from medicine to food products. But some of the greatest benefits could be felt in the biofuels sector, where Venter's team has been working on a project with ExxonMobil using related technology to produce algal-based fuels. If the project is successful, algae could yield more than three times the amount of biofuel per acre than palm plantations, four times that from sugarcane and eight times that from corn – and the output could be used as a substitute for a range o