{"id":18000,"date":"2012-09-14T13:54:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T18:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=18000"},"modified":"2012-09-14T20:38:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-15T01:38:19","slug":"why-the-next-ut-am-rivalry-could-be-fought-in-the-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/14\/why-the-next-ut-am-rivalry-could-be-fought-in-the-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Next UT-A&M Rivalry Could Be Fought in the Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Mose Buchele<\/p>

UT Research Engineer Robert Pearsal looks into a vat of algae.<\/p><\/div>\n

Two teams, racing against the clock. A long-standing rivalry that up til now has been played on the football field. And at the end, the prize: gooey, stinky algae.<\/p>\n

While the University of Texas and Texas A&M University football teams no longer play each other<\/a> after A&M left the Big 12 conference for the SEC (beginning their membership with a loss to Florida last Saturday), there is a new rivalry between the two campuses: who can make algae into a commercially-viable fuel fastest.<\/p>\n

The specifics are well over our pay grade, involving words like\u00a0microfluidic<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0B. Braunii<\/em>. But suffice to say that the idea behind all this research is to create a fuel from algae that can be used in combustion engines.<\/p>\n

At UT, as we reported in a story<\/a> in December, the\u00a0Open Algae<\/a>\u00a0team is hard at work\u00a0trying to commercialize algae biofuels.<\/p>\n

And at A&M they’re aiming to do the same.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A new report by Texas A&M Agrilife Today<\/a> says that a team at the university may be within four years of a\u00a0commercially-viable, fuel-grade algae oil.<\/p>\n

“The team, with a combined expertise from agriculture to engineering, has received a $2 million National Science Foundation grant to help hasten the process,” Agrilife Today<\/em> writes.<\/p>\n

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Texas AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips<\/p>

A team at A&M recently received a $2 million grant to find ways to make algae biofuels commercially viable.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the collaborators on the project is\u00a0Dr. Tim Devarenne, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research biochemist and collaborator on the project. He says that one benefit of algae isn’t just that it’s renewable, but also that it’s much less carbon intensive.\u00a0\u201cIf we harvest algae and process them into fuels, we don\u2019t emit any excess carbon into the atmosphere that is currently being emitted from petroleum fossil fuels,\u201d he tells Agrilife Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If all goes well, the A&M team could partner with industry to make algae fuel\u00a0commercially\u00a0viable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can produce an alga that produces high amounts of oil and grows fast,\u201d Devarenne says, \u201can industry partner could grow large amounts of it, extract the oil, convert that oil into gasoline or diesel fuel and sell it just like at a normal gasoline pump.\u201d<\/p>\n

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