If you’ve been paying attention to Al Gore, then you’ll know that our planet is hurting and we should all be doing something to clean things up. Part of this has to do with our reliance on fossil fuels and all the pollutants that result from their consumption. There’s got to be a cleaner, greener solution, right?

Well, Colorado State University professor Bryan Wilson has partnered up with the folks from the Southern Ute Indian Reservation to create what could be a very green energy source. Quite literally green, in fact, since this biofuel is based in algae.

I’m no scientist, but what I can gather from the article is that a special strain of algae is placed into a water tank next to a natural gas processing plant and this algae loves carbon dioxide. The water is “already green-tinged with life.”

Solix Biofuels is the name of the three-year-old company and they’re working to produce vegetable oil fuel from this algae. More specifically, you can expect to get some biodiesel out of this project that can then be used in a regular diesel engine.

Is biodiesel the energy source of the future for our vehicles? Is this a viable intermediary until we find something else? Is the algae idea better than corn-based ethanol?

Source: NYT