An Australian company has developed a high-yield enclosed algae growth and harvesting system now destined for biofuels projects in Australia, Sri Lanka and China.

In April 2011, Qantas, Australia’s largest airline completed its historic test flight using biofuels on a flight between Sydney and Adelaide, it was watched with great interest by Roger Stroud whose Western Australian and US-based company Algae.Tec has developed biofuels from algae.

Unlike the Qantas flight which flew on fuel derived from used cooking oil, the McConchie-Stroud System, named for its inventors uses a high-yield enclosed algae growth and harvesting system.

Since 2007 when Roger Stroud and chemical engineer Earl McConchie formed their company in Perth, W.A., the two entrepreneurs perfected the core technology that today sees Algae.Tec undertaking biofuels projects in Australia, Sri Lanka and China.

They also have an agreement with the European airline Lufthansa for the development of aviation biofuels. Roger Stroud is Algae.Tec’s Executive Chairman and from Perth, Western Australia he describes how they grow algae very quickly -- not in vast ponds outside, but inside shipping containers.

Speaking to Radio Australia on the venture in Sri Lanka, linked with a very large cement and building materials company, Stroud stated that, “they can use that waste product or waste pollutant and turn it into a profit centre for the company, obviously in joint venture with ourselves.”