FORBES - In the dark? That’s not how we normally think of plants being grown. But it’s a method that could be used to grow algae as a renewable fuel source, with even better results than regular ol’ sunlight. The researchers working on this are from University of California, Riverside (UCR) and it’s part of a two-year project. Those involved are being tight-lipped about the methods they’ll be using (pending the upcoming publication of research on a closely related project). What’s been announced so far: The work is being funded with a two-year, $60,000 fellowship from the Link Foundation, which supports projects to foster innovation in energy, aeronautics and ocean engineering. The foundation is named after Edwin A. Link, who created autonomous underwater vehicles.
Diving deeper, the fellowship is going to Elizabeth Hann, a doctoral student in plant biology who university officials say is going to use the time to test whether she can grow algae for biofuels completely in the dark using solar-generated electricity.