OriginOil Announces Research Agreement with US DOE's Idaho National Laboratory
OriginOil, Inc. (OTCBB: OOIL), the developer of a breakthrough technology to extract oil from algae and an emerging leader in the global algae oil services industry, today announced the funding of a new research agreement with the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Under the agreement, OriginOil and INL will collaborate with a goal toward establishing industry standards for algal biomass, a critical step toward making algal biofuels a competitive alternative to petroleum.
Under the terms of the new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), OriginOil will provide INL with its Single Step Extraction™ technology, and contribute its knowledge of how to stimulate oil production and pre-treat for consistent extraction of the algae and its co-products.
OriginOil expects to benefit from INL’s scientific and engineering expertise and its large Process Demonstration Facility which boasts advanced biofuels processing capabilities and equipment, including biochemical, thermochemical and other downstream conversion technologies. A primary effort will be to integrate algae with terrestrial biomass sources to achieve large-scale biofuels production.
At the same time, rising fuel prices (how long until we see oil prices exceed US$120 again?) environmental concerns and political and economic instability, may adversely affect growth over the coming years. Bob Craft: The industry as a whole saw