Aug. 4--To read the executive summary about Sapphire Energy's potential land purchase from the City of Las Cruces, click here.

LAS CRUCES --The word "algae" might cause you to wrinkle your nose as you picture a green mass floating on a pond but these organisms may one day be used to fuel your vehicle.

Some types of algae are composed of about 50 percent oil. That oil can be extracted and turned into fuel -- sulfur free. And Las Cruces could be at the forefront in the development of this energy.

Southern New Mexico and the El Paso area have drawn interest from companies hoping to create biofuel from algae. Now Sapphire Energy of San Diego, Calif., hopes to build a facility on the West Mesa Industrial Park in Las Cruces that could eventually grow to thousands of acres.

Sapphire Energy plans to grow algae to produce a renewable source of fuel from which gasoline and jet fuel can be made.

Mike Mendez, the company's vice president of technology, said algae can be grown with carbon dioxide, water and sunlight.

"What we do is farming, it's just a different crop," he said.

Mendez said

the facility in Las Cruces will have large ponds -- similar to what you might see at a fish farm -- in which the algae would be grown. When the algae is harvested, it would be dried and a machine would separate the solid material from the oil. The oil, called green crude, would then be refined just like crude taken from the ground.

"It would be refined into gasoline or jet fuel," he said. "From there it would be distributed and enter the gas stream as you would know it."

The exact process for the algae-produced fuel to enter the market hasn't yet been worked out. But one possibility is to blend it with other gasoline so that the gas you buy at the pump might have 10 percent -- or some other percentage -- of renewable fuel.

"It would have an effect on cost of gas immediately," Mendez said. "It would make a difference."

Would Sapphire one day have its own refinery and gas stations? Would it be bought by an oil company? In the future will you be able to buy fuel made completely from renewable sources or just a blend? Mendez said those questions still must be worked out, but he said renewable biofuel that cuts down on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere will be better for everyone.

"With the issue of global warming, this is not really a luxury," he said.

Las Cruces facility

A proposed ordinance and economic development project is on the Las Cruces City Council's agenda today that calls for Sapphire to buy 10 acres of land in the West Mesa Industrial Park at market value. Sapphire would create 30 jobs at 120 percent of the average salary for the area and would invest $6 million in the industrial park.