Algae front-runner GreenFuel slashes staff

Algae biofuel outfit GreenFuel Technologies has laid off 19 people, or about half of its staff, another sign of the difficulty that fledgling alternative fuels face.

A company representative confirmed the staff reduction on Monday and said one of GreenFuel's two major customers--the Aurantia cement factory in Spain--remains a customer.

An algae bioreactor from another algae fuel firm, PetroAlgae.

(Credit: PetroAlgae)

GreenFuel has developed a method for growing and harvesting algae in a greenhouse. The idea is to locate the greenhouses near a large carbon dioxide emitter, like a cement factory or power plant, to "feed" the algae. The algae is then harvested, dried, and turned into biodiesel or feed food.

Company CEO Simon Upfill-Brown, who was recruited last year from Dow Chemical to head the 8-year-old firm, told Xconomy that the engineering for its Spanish deal, previously estimated at $92 million, will be outsourced.

"We've got to weather this economic storm as best we can," Upfill-Brown said. "This is the right thing to do."

A person claiming to be a former contract worker at the company said GreenFuel's Aurantia customer was dissatisfied because of several months of delays.

GreenFuel was one of the first companies to get funded to commercialize algae farming, and there are now several companies and researchers studying methods for turning algae into fuel.

But the company has had its missteps. Its first test facility at an Arizona utility produced too much algae, making the harvesting very manual and driving up the cost of operation. It replaced its CEO, putting investor Bob Metcalfe in charge for several months.

GreenFuel isn't alone in running into stumbling blocks, though. Many clean-tech companies are hunkering down, seeking to preserve cash so they can finish developing products.

Biofuel firms seeking to commercialize their technology are particularly vulnerable to the financial industry meltdown. Demonstration plants require large amounts of money to build. But investors have become more risk-averse, making it tougher for relatively unproven firms to demonstrate and fine-tune their technologies.

[Manhattan2]

Algae should be redirected to the future use of feeding livestock and the malnourished. The inefficiency of photosynthesis at converting the suns energy will prevent viable use as a mobile fuel source. There are better ways at capturing the suns energy. See EnergyManifesto.com for more information. Food and shelter should come first. Solar Transfer will be how we propel vehicles and heat our homes. 2% plus efficiency plus production costs and distribution will prevent algae from being the fix. Yes Corn is much worse! The Energy Manifesto is coming soon.

[OKNow2009]

Greenfuel had a few hard working personnel and the new CEO laid them off and kept the ones who created this flawed business operations once again along with the three new executives hired in the past few months. Two mistakes, lack of oversight and the inability to work as a team lays at the feet of the Board, no matter how strongly they try to spin it. If the investors were wise, they would have listened to more than those who fed them fancy sandwiches and treated them like royalty - management was always behind closed doors. Why? Truth is easy to see, lies take practice.

[investinscum]

Greenfuel has laid off key management including the VP of Engineering. The project in Spain was always planned on being outsourced. The truth is they lost a lion's share of the 92 million that they purport on the company website. Truly a dysfunctional company, where upper management just does not know what is going on in the trenches. They lacked professionalism, tact, and plain courtesy when dealing with customers and employees. Anyone thinking of investing in this company need only to look at the track record of continued failures. Biodiesel can and will be made from algae in the future, Greenfuel will not be the one to do it. In the last 5 months; before any layoffs, there were resignations from 4 key staff scientists. They heard the rhetoric from upper management but could see the hard facts in science. Greenfuel will pander for more investors and good luck investing in algal scum. The company also was rife with gross nepotism.