Algae Energy Orgy

When Adam Freeman graduated last December from Kennesaw State University in Georgia with a degree in biochemistry, he wanted to work in only one field: pond scum. Freeman had read that entrepreneurs were squeezing out fuel from the green muck known as algae, and he wanted to be one of them. So he set out on an algae road trip. With a list of more than 40 companies to visit, he drove from his hometown of Roswell, Georgia, to Vancouver, British Columbia, and back—sleeping on couches and knocking on companies' doors. But after four months and 18,000 miles, he realized that the industry wasn't what it purported to be. No one actually seemed to be producing oil. Most companies were simply growing scum without analyzing it. Some were bizarrely secretive. "I thought there'd be established companies where I could get a job, but there weren't," he says. Freeman saw firsthand the algae industry's slimy secret: Some companies have promised impossible amounts of oil based on speculation, raising millions from unwitting investors...read more