Turning sewage into biodiesel in New Zealand

New Zealand's Aquaflow Bionomic announced late last week that they have successfully produced a sample of biodiesel from wild algae in sewage ponds. This announcement means Aquaflow Bionomic is the first to get the fuel from algae that were not specially grown in the laboratory. The algae clean the sewage water (or industrial waste streams from farmers or food processors) while making the biofuel. A company spokesman said, "The market potential for this product is almost unlimited in the peak-oil environment we are in."

Aquaflow Bionomic processes the algae into a pulp and then extracts liquid oils and turns it into biodiesel. The company expects to be producing a million liters of biodiesel a year once the program gets up and running next April.