FORT COLLINS - Colorado State University and Solix Biofuels, Inc., a Boulder-based start-up company, are working in partnership to develop technology to mass-produce algae that create oil that can be converted into biodiesel fuel.

Officials from Solix and CSU announced the partnership today at a presentation held at CSU's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory just north of downtown Fort Collins. Also attending were officials from the city of Fort Collins and New Belgium Brewing Co., which will house the first large-scale, 350-foot-long algae-growing bioreactor.

Bryan Willson, laboratory director, said experiments with small-scale algae bioreactors have shown the potential to commercialize the technology designed by Jim Sears, founder of Solix.

"We want to put ideas into production, and that means working with industry," Willson said, noting that there was little government funding for biofuel research. "If we're going to be involved in a meaningful way, it's going to require an entrepreneurial approach."

Willson said in the process, the algae use photosynthesis to turn carbon dioxide and sunlight into an economical petroleum substitute that can power vehicles - even jets.

Sears said the technology promises to be much more potent in its productivity than corn or other biomass sources of alternative fuel.

"Algae are the fastest-growing organisms on the planet, and can produce 100 times more oil per acre than conventional soil-tilled crops that are now being grown for biofuel use," he said.

Solix officials said widespread construction of algae "bioranches" could eventually meet the U.S. demand for diesel fuel - about 4 million barrels a day - by growing algae on otherwise vacant land next to power plants and ethanol plants. Those plants produce carbon dioxide, which the algae can turn into oil, keeping it out of the atmosphere.

"I hope this is the start of a new crop that will impact and help meet energy needs worldwide," Sears said.

Sears estimated it would require about 4 million acres to offset 25 percent of the 60 billion gallons of diesel fuel consumed in the U.S. each year. He said an estimated 100,000 technicians would ultimately be needed to tend the bioreactors, creating new jobs in rural parts of the nation.

"It's a pretty good economic and technical package altogether," he said.

Doug Henston, Solix CEO, said his company is only interested in "market-driven solutions" and he predicted the technology could be implemented on a global basis. "We wanted to start this in Colorado to help make a global difference," he said.

Henston said the first full-size bioreactor will be installed at the New Belgium brewery "sometime next year" and will feed off the carbon dioxide produced as a byproduct of beer production.

Solix officials said they planned to begin commercializing the technology over the next two years and eventually compete with the wholesale price of crude petroleum.