Ethanol to electricity for AlgoDyne, or is it?

AlgoDyne Ethanol Energy Inc., which has developed advanced fuel cell technology, announced recently that they are negotiating partnerships in the field of Direct-Alcohol-Fuel-Cells (DAFC) to provide their cutting-edge systems. AlgoDyne has undertaken extensive DAFC research to develop technology that allows them to produce electricity from ethanol directly. DAFCs generate power through the direct oxidation of alcohol in conjunction with the reduction of oxygen. AlgoDyne's breakthrough has been to achieve significantly higher levels of efficiency over existing designs with a prototype soon to follow.
AlgoDyne has also developed proprietary mico-algae-based (phytoplankton) technology provides a powerful means to produce clean, renewable energy from the continual harvest of bio-mass from Photo-Bioreactors which has supposedly garnered attention from a consortium of Asian investors.

Analysis: While the technology is interesting, I think I'll wait and see how this one goes because its going to be hard to farm a crop, harvest it, produce ethanol from it and then use that ethanol in a fuel cell to generate electricity in an efficient way. There are just too many steps.

But possibly an even more important question is, does AlgoDyne even exist? Some seem to think not. Let's just see that prototype shall we?

Related:

• New Mexico State University researchers go swimming with the algae to find biodiesel
• I don't care what its made of, as long as it works

[Source: SeekingAlpha via Oilgae]