by Staff Writers San Diego (UPI) Nov 26, 2012 Genetically
engineered marine algae can be just as useful as fresh water
algae for producing biofuels, researchers in California say.
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego, said the
yield of petroleum-like compounds from genetically modified
saltwater algae could match that of fresh water varieties. The
ability to genetically transform marine algae into a biofuel
crop is important, they said, because it expands the types of
environments in which algae can be grown for biofuels. Algal
biofuels can be produced in the ocean, in the brackish water of
tide lands or even on agricultural land on which crops can no
longer be grown because of high salt content in the soil, they
said. "The algal community has worked on fresh water species of
algae for 40 years," UCSD researcher Stephen Mayfield said.
"What our research shows is that we can achieve in marine
species exactly what we've already done in fresh water species.
"There are about 10 million acres of l