A pilot project in Karratha, that creates algae for use as biofuel, has reached its final milestone under the Low Emissions Energy Development (LEED) fund.
The Western Australian Government’s LEED fund supports technology that cuts greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector.
Aurora Algae was allocated $2 million to help develop a system using carbon dioxide, seawater and sunshine to produce algae which is turned into biofuel, stock feed and dietary supplements.
Plans are underway to construct a larger scale commercial plant in the next couple of years, with the aim of supplying the local mining industry with biodiesel.
Aurora’s Matthew Caspari says the grant required the project to reach 10 targets, including running a vehicle on its biofuel.
“Integrating different pieces of the process, so our production process to our harvesting process and actually drying to create the end product and we also had a milestone tied towards producing biofuel from the facility and running a vehicle on it,” he said.
“To have these successful results and the technology we are very excited and we are looking forward to the next stage which is the commercial project.”
