Green smokestacks ?

I have mentioned the use of algae to mitigate CO2 emissions before. GreenFuel Technologies is one such company in this arena. Flue gases from a power plant are funneled into an algae chamber. The algae consumes CO2 and the resulting biomass is used to produce biofuel! Sounds remarkable, but is it practical? It would appear so. The company in its recent press release mentions a successful implementation at Arizona's RedHawk power plant.

PHOENIX, Ariz. and Cambridge Mass. - Arizona Public Service Company
(APS) and GreenFuel Technologies Corporation have announced that they
have successfully recycled the carbon dioxide (CO2) from the stack
gases of a power plant into transportation grade biofuels. The
announcement was made at the Platts Global Energy Awards ceremonies
today in New York. Using GreenFuel's Emissions-to-Biofuels-™ algae
bioreactor system connected to APS's’ 1,040 megawatt Redhawk power
plant in Arlington, Ariz., GreenFuel was able to create a carbon-rich
algal biomass with sufficient quality and concentration of oils and
starch content to be converted into transportation-grade biodiesel
and ethanol.

"“This is the first time ever that algae biomass created on-site by
direct connection to a commercial power plant has been successfully
converted to both these biofuels,” said Isaac Berzin, GreenFuel’s
founder and Chief Technology Officer. “The conversion and
certification of the fuels were conducted by respected, independent
laboratories."

Read the full press release here. The company plans to have the technology widely available in 2007. Even with a 80% percent conversion rate, I find this technology so much more promising and sensible compared to the weird underground CO2 sequestration idea.

Best wishes to the GreenFuel team