Univ. of Arkansas Professor Receives Award – Thanks to Algae

25th May, 2011

Dr Jamie Hestekin and his team of students from the University of Arkansas have received Planet Forward’s Innovator of the Year award for their research on algae biofuels. Planet Forward is the project of the Center for Innovative Media at the George Washington University, which features innovative ideas on climate and energy challenges. Planet Forward will follow the algae biofuel project and will feature it on its website and television channels across the USA for the next 1 year.

The project focuses on the production of biobutanol from algae. The students work on a biofuel miniprocessing unit, which converts algae and other biomass directly into biofuel. Their device is unique in that it is small enough to fit in the back of a pick-up truck and is able to produce a few milliliters of fuel-grade biobutanol at a time and it could serve as a model for large scale applications of this technology.

The team is led by Dr Hestekin and co-advisors Bob Beitle and Roy Penney of the College of Engineering of the University of Arkansas.

Best Regards to
Oilgae