Economic Analysis of Alternative Fuels Technologies

Thanks to the generous support of IAS, Dr.'s Starbuck, Erickson, and Libbin have conducted an economic analysis of three types of alternative fuels technologies: algal based lipids; corn based ethanol; and cellulosic ethanol.

The IAS funds provided direct salary support for the above researchers to conduct these analyses. The funding allowed Dr. Starbuck to develop an in depth cost-based analysis of algal based fuels. The literature regarding biofuels does not contain a current, systematic estimate regarding the potential production costs of algal based fuels. The funding provided by IAS was instrumental in developing this new information. This data and analysis has subsequently been utilized in a large proposal for the production of JP-8 fuel derived from algal triglycerides for the Department of Defense. The IAS funds were critical to the development of the data and materials that are providing essential information for the proposed algal triglyceride project.

The analysis conducted using these IAS funds has been successfully utilized in one major proposal already, and as the additional reports and materials are revised into their final versions the analysis will be widely disseminated and will provide an important source of data and results that our research partners can use in a wide variety of applications. These results will allow NMSU and her partners to have material ready for any proposal calls, and will help improve our competitiveness on biofuel proposals.

We sincerely appreciate the support of IAS. These funds have been instrumental to our efforts to compete for large scale renewable fuels projects; and will continue to be so.

The in-depth report for the Library of Congress is here